Trouble with a Capital T COMPLETE
by FullMoonDreams
Summary: A time travel/parallel world fic which sees Lily, James, Peter, Sirius and Remus at Hogwarts during Harry's third year. How will they cope when they find out what is to come? Read and find out. LEJP maybe, LEOW possibly, RLSB slash definitely.
1. It's WHAT Year?

Disclaimer: I own nothing…duh!

WARNING: Slash. Remus/Sirius. If you don't like then don't read. Flames will be ignored. There will probably be a bit of strong language too.

A/N: This is the fourth story in the Parallel Worlds series but should stand alone so you don't have to read the others. If you want to read the others anyway the order is Double Trouble, Catch a Quaffle and Triple Trouble. Unlike the previous stories this one won't be just from the points of view of Remus and Sirius. It will be from the points of view of Lily and the rest of the marauders too.

Please excuse the unclear scene breaks - this is the fault of this site which simply refuses to show some of the lines. I have tried using hyphens and the line tool within the site but neither are working properly. It is doing this on all my fics (and from what I have seen around the site, on a lot of other people's too) and is driving me right up the flaming wall. If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know as I am heartily sick of going through every chapter of all my stories in order to try and fix this, only to have the site randomly screw it up over and over again. 

* * *

Trouble with a Capital T

"I used to have a normal life. Or at least as normal a life as a teenage witch could have. For instance, I used to abide by the curfew and would never have been found wandering around Hogsmeade village after curfew with four boys. And not just any boys…the infamous Marauders.

"I mean just look at them! First there's James Potter, my own personal stalker – really! I feel so special.

"Then there's Peter Pettigrew, whom I like to think of as the Potter cheering squad. When I'm feeling really evil I like to think of him in one of those little cheerleading outfits they wear in America. Hey! It passes the time and don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

"Then there's Sirius Black, arrogant, loud-mouthed, obnoxious and at this particular moment in time, screaming at the top of his lungs because his hair isn't looking quite perfect. It's not even his actual hair; it's a picture for crying out loud!

"And finally there's Remus Lupin. I used to think of him as the most intelligent of the band of miscreants, after all he _is_ the only one of them who actually manages to remember to call me Lily instead of Evans. He's also Black's boyfriend. I was thrilled when they got together, just like most of the rest of the school. I had mistakenly assumed that Remus would be a good influence on Sirius. How wrong can a girl be? Instead I am devastated to discover that Remus seems to be losing IQ points by the day. I'm working on a theory whereby he loses one IQ point each time he kisses Black…By my calculations I figure he'll be a vegetable long before the end of term exams come round.

"Point in question. Clearly the obvious way to deal with Black's hysterics is a good slap round the face. Unfortunately Remus seems to think that gentle coaxing is the answer…purr-lease!"

"Evans? Why are you talking to yourself?"

"Huh?" _Damn. I really must stop doing that. When Peter Pettigrew is looking at you like you've lost the plot it's really time to start worrying. _

"A little help would be nice," James added as he gestured to Sirius.

_Well, since you asked so sweetly._

Lily Evans stalked across the street and gently moved Remus out of the way. Then she delivered a resounding slap to the face of Sirius Black and tried not to grin too widely at just how good that felt. Sirius's head reeled back under the impact and hit the wall behind him. He let out a groan and slumped to the floor.

"Lily!" Remus exclaimed as he sank to his knees and gently took his boyfriend's head and placed it in his lap.

"He was hysterical," Lily pointed out. "At least he's stopped screaming now."

"Well yeah, because you've just knocked him unconscious," James pointed out as he joined Remus on the ground and began begging Sirius to come back to them.

"He's only knocked out," Lily muttered. "It's not like he's dead and passed over to the other side. Look he's coming round already. He's probably just after attention."

"I think attention is the last thing he wants," Remus pointed out as he nodded upwards towards the billboard the boys had gathered around.

**WANTED  
SIRIUS BLACK**

"Oh," Lily mumbled. "I guess we've got another psycho Black on the loose then?"

"Apparently," James replied as he helped Remus pull Sirius to his feet. "Now how about we head to Hogwarts and find Dumbledore?"

"If there is a Dumbledore here," Remus whispered. "We don't know if this world even has one."

"Well whoever the headmaster is, they have to help us," Lily pointed out in her best reasonable tone, the one she often used when dealing with small children, somehow it was often the most appropriate tone for the marauders as well.

"Wha'?" Sirius mumbled as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You just had a bit of an accident," Remus lied. "We're going to go up to Hogwarts now and see if we can get help from the Dumbledore here."

"Here?" Sirius echoed. "Here? The future? Tell me I just imagined that?"

"Sorry mate," James whispered. "We're in 1993 and you're an escaped convict. Any ideas what you were in for?"

Sirius glared at James and Lily resisted the urge to bang their heads together. Deciding that putting some distance between herself and the boys might be prudent, Lily set off on the path towards Hogwarts at a brisk pace.

"Evans?" Peter called after her. "You might want to come with us to the tunnel!"

"Tunnel?" _Why do they never tell me anything? And why would the little twerp imagine I'd want to be crawling through a tunnel when there's a perfectly good road?_

"According to this poster, the dementors are guarding Hogwarts. We'll never get past them through the main gates."

_I really hate it when they know more than I do? They always look so smug about it, like yesterday when they made me feel like I should have known all along that they're illegal animagi. I really must remember to let McGonagall know about that too. Perhaps when we get home though, no sense in getting into trouble here…we're in enough of it already._

"Evans? Are you coming with us?" James called.

_The way he's leering right now I may just decide to take my chances with the dementors. _

"Come on Lily, we'd better hurry," Remus added. "We'll be home before you know it. This is just a little unexpected detour."

_Oh good, because those are always so much fun. Pettigrew, you are so going to pay for this. _

It wasn't really Peter's fault, and deep down Lily knew that. But it had been Peter who had decided, for reasons she still hadn't managed to fathom, to enlist her help with a small problem he and his friends had.

That same small problem – _Hah! Like there was such a thing when the marauders were involved!_ – had resulted in her being dragged, almost literally, into their latest escapade and into a parallel world. If only the Dumbledore in the parallel world had been as adept at magic as their own…in that case he might have sent them back home properly, instead of catapulting them into the future. She wondered idly if it was the future of the world they had just left, their own world, or another one entirely. She guessed at the moment it didn't really matter, it wasn't like it was home whatever the case.

* * *

"Looks like everyone's in bed," Remus commented as they approached the castle. "I can't see any lights on in Gryffindor Tower, not even McGonagall's."

"We'll have to wake someone up then," Lily pointed out with a huff of impatience. _Really, do I have to think of everything?_

"Maybe we should wait until morning," James suggested.

"And where do you suggest we sleep in the meantime?" Lily asked sarcastically.

"Looks like there's no need to wake anyone." Remus nodded towards the entrance and they saw the familiar, albeit older, face of Argus Filch.

Fifteen minutes later and Lily found herself standing with the marauders in the headmaster's office, Albus Dumbledore sitting at his desk, just the way she remembered him. His hair and beard were a little longer and there were even more lines on his face, but he was the same man.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," Dumbledore stated quietly with a shake of his head. "I remember each and every one of you from your time at this school but I know nothing about other worlds with doubles of people living their lives in them."

"But you must have," Sirius exclaimed loudly. "You were the one who sent our doubles back home when we couldn't. You kept in touch with your own double and invited some of the students to hide in our school when they were in danger. Then you sent them home again…"

Sirius's voice trailed off as Dumbledore continued to shake his head sadly. "I'm sorry Mr Black, but those events never happened in this world."

"But you can send us home, right?" James asked.

"I'll need to look into it," Dumbledore explained. "It may take some time I'm afraid."

"But our Dumbledore knew exactly what to do right away," James argued.

"I guess 'your Dumbledore' has some knowledge that I don't," Dumbledore replied with a small smile. "With so much knowledge to be learned, it is only natural that there will be some things that I don't know. But I'm a firm believer in the fact that it is never too late to learn."

"But what are we supposed to do in the meantime?" Sirius asked quietly. "The posters…they say…they…"

"It's quite all right Mr Black. I am well aware of the posters which are displayed not only in Hogsmeade but around the entire country." Sirius gasped. "I don't mean to alarm you. Merely to say that for that reason it is probably best that you, all of you, remain here at Hogwarts. You can take lessons with the rest of the sixth years until I can find a way to send you home."

Lily nodded, along with the rest, just as a knock sounded at the door.

"Enter!" Dumbledore called and Lily turned to see Professor McGonagall, looking a little sleepy and a little older staring at their party as though she'd seen a ghost. "Ah Minerva, thank you for coming so promptly. As you can see, we have some unexpected guests who will be staying with us for a while."

Lily had never seen McGonagall so flustered, even after the time 'someone' had jinxed the Fat Lady's portrait and sealed everyone inside Gryffindor Tower for the day.

But Minerva McGonagall was nothing if not professional and she soon recovered herself.

"May I ask if these students are who I think they are?" she asked, casting another sweeping glance over them.

"Well if you think they are James Potter, Remus Lupin, Lily Evans, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black, you would be quite correct. These students appear to have accidentally travelled here from another world, one that is rather similar to how this world was in 1977."

"Oh my. How much do they know about…er…events?"

"Nearly nothing," Dumbledore confirmed. "They've only just arrived here and other than seeing the posters in the village they know nothing of the events that have transpired in this world…and may still come to pass in their own."

"What sort of things?" James piped up. Lily kicked him in the shin and glared at him. _Of all the stupid things to do – reminding them that they were still in the room. Really the boy could be utterly brainless at times._

"Nothing for you to worry about," Dumbledore replied kindly. "This is after all a different world and any knowledge you obtained here about what you may perceive to be your own world's future may be completely irrelevant anyway.

"Now Minerva, where do we put these extra bodies?"

"I'm sure I can find room for them in Gryffindor Tower. You are all Gryffindors I take it?" Everyone nodded again.

"Professor?" Remus asked hesitantly.

"Yes," McGonagall asked kindly. Lily noted that it seemed that the head of Gryffindor had a soft spot for the boy in this world too.

"May we perhaps stay in the room of requirement?" Remus asked. "We've shared a crowded dorm with our own doubles before and eight in a room is pretty bad. Also the room of requirement may be able to provide us with the solution on how to get home again if we can figure out what to ask from it."

"It is a little irregular," McGonagall murmured. "And I really don't like the idea of Miss Evans rooming with you boys."

"That makes two of us," Lily muttered under her breath.

"The room can be split into more than one," Remus told her.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Very," Remus nodded again and Lily noticed a flush appearing on his cheeks. _Hmm, now I wonder what Remus has been doing in the room of requirement? Or should I ask who? _Lily cast a glance at Sirius and noticed he looked inordinately pleased with himself. _ Well that answers that question._

"Well I will leave the decision up to Miss Evans," McGonagall decided.

Lily swore to herself and shrugged. "I don't mind staying the room of requirement," she finally sighed.

"Then that's decided," McGonagall said as she turned to lead them from the room. She paused a moment at the door and turned back to Dumbledore. "What about the rest of the staff?" she asked, a little stiffly. "I'm sure you know who I'm referring to."

"Of course, they will be rather surprised but they're both grown men and are capable of acting professionally."

McGonagall looked doubtful but didn't press whatever issue it was that she had. Instead she nodded thoughtfully. "And Harry?"

"I think perhaps Harry has enough on his plate this term. No need to confuse the boy any more than necessary."

Again McGonagall looked doubtful, but left the decision in the hands of the headmaster.

"Oh one more question," Dumbledore called out. "Mr Lupin, do you have a moment?"

Lily exchanged a meaningful glance with Remus. "It's all right headmaster," Remus said quietly. "I know what you want to ask, and the answer's yes. I do suffer from Lycanthropy, as my friends here know. I can see that the shrieking shack is just as it is in our world. I'll be sure to go there each full moon."

"That may not be necessary," Dumbledore stated quietly. "But it is too late tonight for complicated explanations. We'll speak more nearer the full moon which is still a couple of weeks away."

Remus nodded and Lily nudged him and raised an eyebrow. He shrugged in response, he had no idea what that was all about either.

* * *

"I assume you know how to work the room of requirement?" McGonagall asked as she stood in the corridor where the room appeared when needed.

"Yes Professor," Remus replied. "Would you like to check the room when it's appeared?"

"I think perhaps it might be best," McGonagall agreed. "Though I see that both yourself and Miss Evans are prefects, I find that caution is often best."

Lily watched as Remus paced the hall and a few moments later the doorway appeared. McGonagall checked inside the room and beamed with approval. "Perhaps a second bathroom for Miss Evans?" she suggested.

"I can use the prefects' bathroom, can't I?" Lily pointed out. "And Remus too?"

"Why of course. Considering the number of troublemakers in Gryffindor at the moment the extra prefects can only be a bonus."

McGonagall stayed a few minutes longer to make sure that Lily and Remus had the passwords they needed and that they all knew how to get into Gryffindor Tower if they wished to do so. She promised to see them at breakfast the next morning to sort out their timetables and then left them to get some sleep.

"This is perfect Moony," Sirius exclaimed as he looked through the various doors. "I see we've got a room to ourselves. Brilliant!"

"I believe that's my room," Lily pointed out, casually pushing Sirius out of the way before he made himself too comfortable in the room that contained a single large double bed.

"Is it hell!" Sirius spluttered. "Me and Moony need our privacy."

"Well go where you usually go to get privacy," Lily snapped.

"This _is _where we usually go," Sirius retorted. "And this is our room!"

"And where am I supposed to sleep?" Lily asked. "On the sofa?" she pointed at the offending piece of furniture in their small but cosy common room.

"If you like. But it seems a bit silly when there're two spare beds in there." He pointed towards one of the other doors.

"I'm not sleeping with Potter!"_ Maybe I could have phrased that better…But in times of extreme embarrassment go on the offensive._ "If you want to get some action with your boyfriend and don't want your mates seeing, I suggest you go find a nice broom cupboard to use instead. I'm taking this room and you aren't going to stop me!"

"Padfoot," Remus called. "That room is for Lily, come on we're in with the other guys."

"But…"

"Don't you think we have other things to worry about right now?"

"Hey! I could get thrown to the dementors any day now. I need to grab my happiness whilst I can."

Lily snickered, earning her a glare from Sirius. "What?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Lily replied sweetly before closing the door in his face.

"What?" Sirius yelled from the other side of the door.

Lily pulled out her wand and cast a spell to lock the door and another to dull the sounds from the other side.

Sirius could be so oblivious sometimes but she'd seen Remus's smirk in her direction and knew he knew exactly what dirty track her mind had gone down. She had a feeling that happiness wasn't all that Sirius would be grabbing tonight…they were teenage boys after all, and highly hormonal ones at that.

She just hoped that a certain other boy's hormones could be kept under control because she didn't like the idea of living in such close quarters with James Potter, not at all.


	2. Settling In

A/N: Yeah, I know, I forgot the warnings at the start. Have added them now - slash (like you didn't already know) and some strong language.

I know I have a ton of replies to answers - I will get to them but I found myself with some free time to write this weekend after all and figured you would all rather have an update than a reply right now. Oh and the next update will be for Once in a Blue Moon.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, although I suspect that there are a few people who are going to loathe it. Sorry but I insist my stories have some twists and this one was just screaming at me to be included.

* * *

Settling In

When Lily woke up the next morning she had forgotten, for the briefest of moments, where she was. As she lay with her eyes open, staring at the dark wood of the ceiling above her, she tried to pinpoint exactly what was wrong. Then she realised that she couldn't hear the sounds of the other girls in the dorm and the memories flooded back to her.

_I'm stuck in the future…with the bloody marauders! Well that just settles it._

And Lily turned over and went back to sleep again.

The second time she woke it was to the sound of insistent banging.

"Evans, we've got classes today! Are you getting up or not?" The sound of James Potter shouting through the door was enough to convince Lily that perhaps it might have been best to stay with the regular sixth year girls. But she'd had a feeling that Remus wouldn't be getting any help from his friends with trying to find a way home, and if she wasn't there to keep a close eye on him he'd spend all his free time shagging Black and they'd be stuck here forever.

Groggily she dragged herself from the bed and made her way to the door. She shot a glare at Potter and pushed him out of the way.

"You're looking…er…um…" James stammered and his voice trailed off as he took in her appearance.

Lily snorted as she left the room and headed to the prefects' bathroom. She knew she looked like hell in the mornings, she didn't need to have him remind her of the fact. There was a very good reason she rarely used the prefects' bathroom in their own Hogwarts, and that was because it would have meant braving the Gryffindor common room to get there. She much preferred to shower and make herself presentable in the bathroom that adjoined the girls' dorms. It wasn't that she was vain, she told herself as she slipped into an alcove to avoid being spotted by a couple of Ravenclaw boys, she just didn't want to inflict her early morning self on the general population. That was it…really!

She reached the prefects' bathroom and spoke the password. Unfortunately the door remained locked, indicating that it was already engaged by one or more boy.

_Great, just great! I just know it's going to be some gorgeous sixth or seventh year who's about to come out of the room. _

She tried to calm down her flyaway hair slightly and wished someone had had the brains to remember that there were both male and female prefects and provide more than one bathroom for them.

Around ten minutes later two boys in Gryffindor robes emerged from the bathroom, one berating the other quite vocally.

"I'm Head Boy and I must insist you don't push the team too hard this year. Mum wants me to make sure that the twins are studying for their OWLs and…"

"Everyone else on the team can study and practice at the same time," the second boy replied impatiently. "Unless McGonagall steps in to say that their grades are too low I'll leave them to organise their study time themselves."

"But as Captain you can…"

"As Captain I have enough to plan and organise without adding harassing the best beaters in the school to the list."

Lily watched the exchange with interest. Not that she could help it since the two boys were blocking the bathroom doorway and she was leaning against the opposite wall.

"As Head Boy I really must insist…"

"Give it a rest Percy," the captain snapped. "It's the first day of the year and I'm already wishing they'd given the badge to someone in Slytherin."

Lily snickered at the affronted expression on Percy's face and the two boys turned to face her. She felt herself flushing under their gazes and wished she hadn't been caught eavesdropping. "I…I w-was waiting for the b-bathroom," she stammered, pointing unnecessarily to the doorway they were stood in.

_Galloping gargoyles, how embarrassing was this? To be caught eavesdropping on two seventh years whilst looking like something the cat dragged it…that's bad enough but when one of them looks good enough to…No! No! No! Stop that train of thought right there!_

Lily shook her head, perhaps hoping that in doing so she could shake away the thoughts of how handsome the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain was and how blue his eyes were.

"It's all yours," the Captain said with a smile as he stepped aside. Flushing again, Lily ducked past them and shut the door behind her.

"Oh bugger!" she swore as she looked at her reflection in the mirror and saw for the first time how truly dreadful she looked. It just wasn't fair.

* * *

"I think we need to have some ground rules while we're here," Remus was saying when Lily arrived back at the room of requirement. "This world is obviously pretty different to our own."

"We'll just muddle through," Sirius said with a shrug, and Lily noticed that he was far more cheerful than he'd been the previous evening. Clearly the shock of finding himself in a second world where his double was evil had subsided slightly.

"I agree with Remus," James said and Lily tried not to look too surprised. "I don't think we should let anyone, including the teachers know about our animagus forms."

_Should have guessed it would be purely selfish reasons he'd be wanting rules for._

"Lily?" Remus asked. "I have to say I think I agree with Prongs on this one. We don't know what the punishment on this world is for lawbreakers. And we have to get out of here as quickly as possible. If the guys get arrested…well…we could be stuck here for ages."

"I never said I disagreed," Lily pointed out.

"You snorted," James stated. "Like you didn't agree."

"I won't tell the teachers," Lily assured them, adding a moment later, "not until after we're home."

"Thank you," Remus said with a smile. "Secondly, lessons. It's years later and I think we can expect the classes to be different to how they used to be."

Lily nodded thoughtfully, it hadn't really occurred to her but now that Remus had brought it up she suspected he was probably right.

"So I've got the room here to produce another room," he pointed to a door that Lily hadn't noticed. "In there are the books and things for the lessons as we remember them. I think we should study hard and make sure that we don't fall behind in our own lessons if things are really different. There are also a few books there that might have a solution to get us home. Hopefully more will appear as we learn about the magic that brought us here."

Lily nodded and turned back to the Remus who was referring to a list he appeared to have made.

"Now, about Sirius…"

"I'm not giving up my bedroom to you two," Lily interrupted. "So if you want a room of your own you'd better get the room to give you one."

"Already tried that," Sirius muttered.

"It didn't work?" Lily asked.

"I suspect it's because the room believes it has already accomplished that with what we have in here," Remus explained. "But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. I actually meant the problem with Sirius being…er…famous, if you like. Or at least his name is. The teachers will call him Mr Black same as they call me Mr Lupin or you Miss Evans. The Black family is pretty big so he can pass himself off as just another one of them. But sooner or later the students are going to hear one of us call him Sirius and it might draw some unwanted attention to him. So I think it best if we all refer to him in public as Padfoot."

"I'm not calling him Padfoot," Lily immediately replied. "I'll call him Black, same as I always do."

Remus sighed. "As long as you don't call him Sirius."

"Since I never have I think I can safely promise not to."

"We'll all be using our nicknames so hopefully it won't seem too strange if anyone overhears us," Remus continued.

"Yeah, because it doesn't sound at all weird when they call you Moony," Lily snickered. "Do you have any idea what most of the students think that nickname stands for?"

Remus looked back her blankly.

_Apparently not._

"Perhaps we should have a special name for you?" James suggested with a smirk.

"Perhaps you'd like to be re-acquainted with my hexing skills?" Lily smiled.

"Okay, bad idea."

"Next on the agenda," Remus announced.

"You have an agenda?" James teased.

"Sod off Prongs," Remus replied easily. "Next is, well really this one is just for me and Padfoot. I think we should consider being a bit more discreet about our relationship."

"What for?" Sirius grumbled.

"Well just because the students in our world accepted us so easily doesn't mean these ones will. Those in our world knew us for years…"

"Knew you fancied each other for years," Lily amended.

"Yeah, well…my point is that the people here don't know us and we know from the last world that not everyone is so understanding."

Lily felt herself flushing, even though it was her double – Lillian – and not herself who had been slightly prejudiced against the idea of two boys being in a relationship together.

Remus smiled at her kindly, sensing her discomfort, and continued. "I just think we should try to be a little more discreet, at least for the time being."

Lily smirked at Sirius. "Discreet, it means to be –"

"I know what it means!" Sirius snapped. "I'm not stupid."

"Well perhaps not completely," Lily retorted.

Remus sighed again. "I think that was everything," he said as he tucked the parchment into the book bag that the room had supplied him with. Lily turned and saw that there was a bag identical to the one she had left behind sitting near the wall. The room really did give you whatever you asked for…it was a pity that no amount of wishful thinking the night before had resulted in the appearance of a doorway leading home.

"We'd better head down to breakfast," Peter commented. "We've got to see McGonagall about our timetables too."

Lily nodded and stood up.

"I just need my disguise," Sirius declared with a grin. "If you don't mind Prongs?"

"It won't work," James said as he pulled his spare set of spectacles from his book bag and passed them to Sirius.

"Sure it will," Sirius replied with a grin as he put on the glasses. "Bloody hell, how can you see through these?"

"My eyes are pretty bad," James pointed out. "They're strong and not supposed to be worn by people who can already see fine."

"Just tie your hair back," Remus suggested. "It makes you look really different and no one will notice the resemblance between you and the posters."

"No, it's all right," Sirius hurriedly said. "It just took a moment to get used to. I can see just fine now."

"Really?" Lily asked. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Er…three."

Peter snickered. "Even I could have guessed that would be wrong. This is Lily Evans testing you."

"Did you flip me the bird?" Sirius asked.

"If you need to ask then you really shouldn't be wearing Potter's glasses."

"Fine," Sirius grumbled as he passed the glasses back and rummaged through the pockets of his robes for something with which to tie back his hair.

"Here, let me," Remus said as he drew near to him and spun him. Then pointing his wand at his hair and mumbled a spell to tie it back.

Lily giggled.

"Moony, what have you done?" Sirius asked suspiciously. "Why's Evans laughing?"

"It's very becoming," Lily smirked.

"It's to remind you of old times," Remus said with a grin.

"You've just put a peach ribbon in my hair, haven't you?" Sirius accused.

"Just a little one," Remus chuckled.

"At least make it black," Sirius whined. "Or I'm not leaving this room…ever!"

Remus grinned as he pointed his wand at the ribbon and it turned from peach to black. "Come on Padfoot. Our first day of term awaits…again."

* * *

Lily sat the table and tried not to think about how strange it was to be there amidst the crowd of strangers. Even though most of her closest friends had been in Gryffindor she knew the names and faces of everyone in her year and a fair number of the rest of the students. To be now sitting in what appeared to be the same Great Hall, but seeing all the unfamiliar students around her…it was just creepy.

"Relax Lily," Remus murmured beside her. "They're just students. It's just like starting a new school, only you already know a few people."

Lily took a calming breath and smiled at the boy who was looking at her knowingly from across the table. She wondered if she was the only one who could tell that Sirius was stroking Remus's leg under the table. She smiled to herself, secure in the knowledge that she wasn't the only one who was disconcerted, and braved another glance around the room.

She wasn't surprised to notice that she and the marauders were being stared at quite openly. After all, they had just sort of appeared at the breakfast table, sixth year students, with no one any the wiser as to how they came to be there.

Suddenly a familiar voice drifted across to her and she turned around to see, across the table and just a couple of seats to her right, the Quidditch Captain handing out parchments to several students who she guessed were fourth or fifth years. Two of the boys were identical redheaded twins and she knew that they must be the brothers of Percy the Head Boy.

"I've booked the pitch for our first practice tomorrow evening," the Captain declared excitedly.

"It's only the first week of term," one of the girls at the table pointed out. "Can't we at least wait until everyone's settled down a bit before we…"

"This is my last year here," the Captain frantically exclaimed. "We've got the best team in years and…look just one practice this week and then I'll rethink the schedule until everyone's settled back in. Please?"

There were a few groans from the players and Lily could see the disappointment in the Captain's eyes.

"Perhaps just one," the girl said as she chewed on her lower lip. "But Oliver, four of us have OWLs this year, and don't forget you have your NEWTs."

Oliver waved his hand airily as though NEWTs were nothing of importance and Lily guessed that perhaps for him they weren't, not when compared to Quidditch anyway.

This time Lily had barely realised she was eavesdropping again when she suddenly found herself staring into the same blue eyes as earlier that morning. She watched the spark of recognition appear in his eyes as he swept his gaze over her much altered appearance.

Oliver grinned across at her. "Quidditch fan?" he asked.

"Evans? A Quidditch fan?" James spluttered.

Lily turned to face the nearly hysterical marauder who was sitting on her left and shot him a glare. "What would you know?" she snapped. "Just because I don't fawn all over _you_, you assume I don't like Quidditch. I just happen to love the game and am _very_ supportive of the house team."

She turned back to Oliver with another smile. He looked a little startled but quickly recovered. "Well you'll have to come to see the team this year. This year is ours! We're going to win the cup. Just you wait and see!"

Lily smiled back and nodded her agreement.

"Don't suppose you've got any places on your team?" James asked.

"You play?" Oliver replied. "What position?"

"Chaser."

"Well we've got a pretty solid team at the moment," Oliver shook his head apologetically. "We've not changed the team in three years, no need to. But if anything happens to any of our players I hope you'll come to tryouts."

"Great!" James grinned although Lily could tell that he was trying not to look too disappointed. She looked across at Sirius and wondered if he was also missing his place on the team but he was presently preoccupied with stealing bites from Remus's plate.

"So where did you lot spring from anyway?" Oliver asked her with another friendly smile. "I might not know everyone in the school but I'm sure I'd remember seeing_ you _before."

Lily was saved from having to answer by the approach of Professor McGonagall who carried with her a list of OWL results and had been making her way through the sixth years to sort out who was taking what NEWTs.

"Our new students are transfer students," Professor McGonagall stated calmly.

"They are?" Oliver asked. "Who's gone to their school in their place?" He began to look around the room avidly, seeming to be half excited and half frantic.

"No one from any of the house teams has been transferred," McGonagall told him. Lily smiled to herself as Oliver stopped staring around the room and turned back to his breakfast.

"Now, timetables," McGonagall said. "I believe your subjects were already chosen at your last school so I really just need to check that none of the subjects clash with the others and let you know the present sixth year timetable. Miss Evans?"

Nodding, Lily pulled out her timetable and passed it to the Professor who skimmed through it and nodding thoughtfully, tapped with her wand so that it reflected the new lesson order. Then she moved onto Remus, Peter, James and finally Sirius.

Lily noticed that although McGonagall had called her Miss Evans, and Peter, Mr Pettigrew, she didn't call any of the others by their names, merely gesturing to them to hand over their timetables. She could understand why the professor might want to avoid using Sirius's surname, with all the posters around the country it was only natural that the name Black might raise eyebrows and McGonagall might want to give them all some time to adjust before the speculation and staring began. But what she couldn't understand was why she didn't use James's and Remus's surnames. She wondered if they were criminals too. They were always together, larking about and pulling pranks and generally getting into trouble. Had the Remus and James in this world followed Sirius to Azkaban? And if so, why wasn't the fourth marauder there with them?

"Are these the only subjects you're taking?" McGonagall asked Sirius with a stunned expression.

"Yes Professor?" Sirius confirmed with a shrug. "I didn't want to stretch myself too thin."

"I doubt you're in danger of that with _this_ timetable," McGonagall replied. "I can't imagine who would authorise such a thing."

Sirius smirked and even Lily had to duck her head to hide her grin.

"Oh." McGonagall looked thoughtful for a moment. "You were on the Quidditch team, yes?"

Sirius nodded.

"I suspect I…er…I suspect the professor who authorised this timetable knew that Quidditch takes up a lot of time and took that into account. But as you aren't on the house team here, I must insist you take another subject to make up the timetable. What OWLs did you take and what grades did you achieve?"

Sirius confirmed the grades of the subjects he'd taken and McGonagall continued to nod thoughtfully.

"Well it appears that you will be joining either Potions or Herbology."

"Can't I do Ancient Runes instead?" Sirius asked. "I got an Acceptable in it."

"I'm afraid not," McGonagall stated kindly. "You achieved an Outstanding in Potions and Exceeds Expectations in Herbology. I'll leave the choice with you."

Lily grinned across the table at Sirius, knowing exactly what it was he was thinking. Remus was in Ancient Runes so naturally he wanted to join his boyfriend. James and Peter were in Potions though and Peter was the only one to take Herbology.

_Say Herbology, say Herbology…_ Lily silently begged. She didn't take that subject and the thought of three of the most troublesome marauders being in NEWT Potions with her was just too much.

"I guess I'll do Potions then," Sirius said with a shrug.

Lily groaned. It really wasn't fair.

"Very well," McGonagall said as she tapped his timetable with her wand before passing it back to him.

"Well it looks like I've got Herbology now," Peter said with a grin. "See you guys later."

Lily nodded as Peter grabbed another slice of toast to eat on his way to class. She looked back at her timetable and the new order of classes. "Looks like we've got Ancient Runes," she said to Remus with a smile. She turned to James and Sirius. "What about you two?"

"Free period," Sirius gloated. "A free period first thing on a Monday morning, you can't get better than that!"

"Me too," James added. "Then double Potions this afternoon, I'm looking forward to it already." Lily turned away, ignoring his flirtatious wink.

"You coming?" she asked Remus, impatient to escape the room before she found the temptation to ram her wand up James's nose too much to resist. Remus nodded and stood up. "See you at lunch Padfoot."

Sirius nodded and smiled and Lily wondered why no one else in the room seemed to be able to see how much the two boys loved each other. She shook her head in wonder and crammed her timetable into her bag. It was then that she noticed one of the twins staring intently at Sirius. At first she thought that maybe he had recognised him as the man from the Wanted posters, but there was no fear on his face. She wondered if maybe he had realised there was something more than friendship between the two boys and made a mental note to have a word with Remus about it. After all, what was the point of insisting on discretion if their love for each other was written all over their faces so anyone could see it?

That must be it, she told herself as she left the table with Remus and headed to her first class of the day. There wasn't really anything else it _could _be.


	3. Professor WHO?

Professor WHO?

"I think she's really warming up to me," James commented as he watched Lily leave the Great Hall with Remus. "Don't you think?"

"..."

"Padfoot, are you listening to me?"

"Huh?"

"I said I think Evans is starting to come around," James said once he was sure he had Sirius's undivided attention, in other words after Remus had disappeared out of sight.

"I'm not seeing it myself," Sirius replied. "So what do you think we should do in order to introduce ourselves to the rest of the school?"

James grinned; he didn't need to ask whether he and Sirius were on the same page, he knew that they were both thinking of the same thing…pranking.

* * *

"So have you both had a productive morning?" Remus asked as he slid onto the bench beside Sirius. "Found out anything from the books in the room of requirement?"

"Books?" James echoed. "Er…not yet…er…"

"You're slipping, you're usually a better liar than that," Remus commented cheerfully. "Have you even opened a book this morning?"

"We've not had any lessons yet," James pointed out, wondering why he was feeling so defensive. He also wondered why _he_ was the one being nagged when Sirius had been right there with him skiving off. He was in the process of asking precisely that when Lily arrived at the table.

She snorted loudly at his question and rolled her eyes.

"If you've got something to say Evans, why not just say it?" James complained.

"Nothing," Lily replied. "Just wondering how on Earth you managed to get any OWLs considering the levels of stupidity you keep displaying."

"You cut me to the quick Evans," James announced dramatically, clutching his heart and wailing piteously.

"Don't tempt me," Lily muttered as she brandished a butter knife dangerously close to his nose.

"What did McGonagall want you for?" Remus asked as he took the knife from Lily and placed it calmly on the table.

"Oh yeah, she wants to speak to us before Potions this afternoon, we've got to meet her in the Entrance Hall in about half an hour."

"Me too?" Remus asked. "I don't take Potions."

"You too," Lily confirmed. "She said just those of us that do Potions but then she changed her mind and said all of us."

"Do you know what she wants?" James asked.

"For us to meet her in the Entrance Hall in half an hour," Lily repeated impatiently. "Don't you listen to anything I say?"

"I listen to everything you say," James insisted. "Like last October when you said you thought my hair looked wild and sexy."

"I never said that!"

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't!"

"I heard you, you can't deny it!"

"I bloody well do deny it," Lily snapped. "I never said that at all!"

"Yes you did," Sirius piped up earning him a beaming smile from a grateful James. "It was after the first Hogsmeade visit of the year. You were walking back up to the school with Patricia from Ravenclaw and you said that you thought, and I quote here, 'Jamie's hair was wild and sexy'."

"I was talking about Jamie Rivers, the lead singer of the band we'd just been to see!" Lily exclaimed. "And what the hell were you doing eavesdropping on us anyway?"

"You weren't talking about me?"

"Have I ever, ever, called you 'Jamie'?" Lily questioned.

"Er…"

"I rest my case."

The rest of lunchtime progressed in a similar fashion, with lots of bickering and Remus removing any and all sharp objects out of the reach of Lily.

Finally they had to make a move and headed out to the Entrance Hall where McGonagall was waiting for them.

"This way please," Professor McGonagall requested as she briskly ushered the group down the stairs to the dungeons and into the nearest empty classroom. She waved them to a table and waited until they were all seated.

"Now it was hoped you'd have a little time to settle in before we sprang any more surprises on you," McGonagall said with a sigh. "However the sixth year timetable has Potions this very afternoon and I feel it is only prudent to warn you."

"Warn us?" Sirius asked and James could tell he was wondering whether he'd made the right choice in taking up Potions instead of Herbology.

"Well not so much warn as…er…" McGonagall faltered slightly and seemed unwilling to look any of them in the eye. James could not recall a single instance when he'd seen the Head of Gryffindor House at a loss for words.

"Professor?" Remus asked hesitantly. "We are expecting some, or even all of our lessons, to have changed from what we are used to."

"It's not about the class itself," McGonagall interrupted with a wave of her hand. "It's about your Professor."

"Slughorn?" James asked. "What about him?"

"_Professor_ Slughorn retired some years ago," McGonagall replied. "Our present Potions Master, and Head of Slytherin house is one of your own contemporaries."

"Contemporaries?" Sirius questioned.

"It means…" Lily started but backed down immediately at the glares of both Sirius and McGonagall.

"With the exception of Mr Lupin here, you are all expected in Potions class in around five minutes, I can't let you go in there without knowing who will be teaching you."

"Who is it?" James asked in a panicked, almost squeaky tone as he tried to recall every decent potions brewer in the school.

"Professor Snape," McGonagall stated.

"No!" Sirius yelled. "It can't be! You're wrong!"

"I assure you Mr Black, that I am quite correct in this matter, and I see I am also correct in my assumption that the relationship between Severus Snape and yourselves was as volatile in your world as it was here.

"Now I don't know whether it's wise to be adding one shock on top of another but there's no point in putting things off. Mr Lupin, if you'd come with me please. The rest of you had better get on to the Potions classroom, Professor Snape dislikes tardiness as much as I do and he won't hesitate to deduct points from each and every one of you."

With those words of warning McGonagall swept out of the room, a confused Remus following in her wake.

"It can't be," James muttered under his breath over and over again.

"Prongs, come on mate," Sirius urged and James felt a tugging on his arm. "We've got Potions with Snivellus now."

James nodded thoughtfully as he let himself be pulled from the room. "It's a nightmare. I've died and gone to hell. My best mate's a criminal on the run from dementors, Snivellus is teaching Potions and Lily doesn't think my hair's wild and sexy. I'm in hell."

"You're not seeing the possibilities," Sirius said with a grin. "Snivellus is a teacher, which means he can take points from us and put us in detention, but he can't do anything else. He can't hex us back at all."

"He could put us in detention forever!" Peter pointed out.

"But we're not going to be here forever," Sirius laughed. "Dumbledore's working on a way to get us home and chances are we'll be back in our own world by this time tomorrow."

"And if we're not?" Peter asked. "We could end up in detention every day for the next two years."

"Wormtail's right," James said as he shook his head frantically.

"You're no fun at all," Sirius grumbled as they entered the Potions classroom.

"Ten points from each of you," Professor Snape barked as they took their seats. "Perhaps next lesson you'll choose to arrive on time."

"We were talking with Professor McGonagall," Sirius argued.

"And ten more points from you Mr Black for answering back," Snape snapped as he glared across the room.

"You were right Prongs," Sirius whispered. "We're in hell."

It was strange, James thought as he idly threw ingredients into the cauldron, Snape looked just as bitter and spiteful as he had done the last time they'd seen him, the only difference was that he was years older.

"Stir the potion _clockwise_ Mr Black!" Snape barked as he navigated the room. "And Pettigrew – concentrate on your own cauldron not Potter's. I don't tolerate cheating in my classroom."

James scowled at Snape's back as he threw a handful of beetle eyes into the cauldron.

"That's too many," Peter whispered to him. "You're only supposed to add six."

"Pettigrew, what did I just tell you?" Snape suddenly yelled across the room. "I will not tolerate cheating. Detention for both of you!"

"Greasy git," Sirius muttered under his breath. "And notice how he's not barking at Evans all the time…"

"That's 'cos he fancies her," James whispered back.

"Ew." Peter screwed up his nose in distaste.

"Well he does," James pointed out. "Always has, and looking at him I doubt he's got any other birds on the go."

"Or perhaps he's not shouting at me because I'm the only one of us who's actually following the instructions on the board," Lily commented without looking up from her cauldron.

James mumbled something entirely uncomplimentary under his breath, causing Peter to snicker and Snape to deduct another ten points from Gryffindor.

"You'll have Gryffindor with no points at all if you keep this up," Snape commented with a cold smile. "And we all know what a shame that would be."

* * *

Remus followed Professor McGonagall back up out of the dungeons, wondering what the other shock she had referred to could be.

"Here we are," McGonagall said as she stopped outside of a door that he vaguely recognised as the office that was usually allocated to the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. "I suspect you have already realised that Hogwarts has a bit of a problem keeping Defence teachers."

Remus nodded, wondering where this was going.

"Well things haven't improved a great deal and we seem to be running through teachers for this post at an astonishing rate."

Remus felt more confused than ever but nodded obediently again.

"The teacher we have this year was amongst the top in his class and we're very lucky to have him here. But the prejudices against him are such that I must ask you to be extra careful with your own secret while you are here. It may not be just your own life in the balance if your lycanthropy were to become public knowledge."

"I'm not sure I understand," Remus replied with a frown of confusion.

"Perhaps it would be best if we just get this over with," McGonagall said as she knocked on the office door.

"Enter," a male voice called from inside the room and McGonagall opened the door to usher Remus inside.

"Professor McGonagall," the man in the room smiled in greeting.

"Professor Lupin," McGonagall replied with a polite nod before casting a meaningful glance at Remus, hovering in the doorway.

"Professor Lupin?" Remus questioned with a squeak so unlike his normal voice he felt himself flushing in embarrassment.

"Remus," Professor Lupin replied with a hesitant smile that told the younger Remus immediately that the professor had been forewarned.

"I think I need to sit down a moment," Remus whispered as he clutched at the back of a chair.

"Of course, it's a bit of a shock," Professor Lupin replied, waving to one of the seats and McGonagall began to back out of the room.

"I'll leave you two to talk a little," McGonagall said with a smile. "I must get back to my seventh years before they forget they're NEWT students and decide to emulate the first years for mischief."

Professor Lupin nodded and Remus mirrored the movement though he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of the man in front of him.

"A bit of a shock, isn't it?" Professor Lupin said as he hopped up onto the edge of a desk in a movement so reminiscent of himself that Remus was startled. "I'll bet you never thought you'd be a teacher, did you?"

"No," Remus squeaked, shaking his head in denial. "I never really thought about what I'd do after leaving Hogwarts. It's not like there are that many options for someone like me."

"For someone like us," Professor Lupin replied with a smile. "I'm a werewolf too, although I imagine Professor McGonagall might have already mentioned that."

"Sort of," Remus admitted. "I can't believe they'd let a werewolf teach at a school."

"To tell you the truth," Professor Lupin leaned forward conspiratorially, "neither can I."

"You know the job's cursed right?"

"Beggars can't be choosers," Professor Lupin replied with a shrug. "Besides, it's a good job and the staff are pretty understanding…most of them anyway. Though naturally the parents aren't aware of my…er…"

"Furry little problem?" Remus suggested with a smile.

"Yeah," Professor Lupin smiled back. "Now there's a phrase I haven't heard in years."

"Professor McGonagall has already warned me about making extra sure to keep my lycanthropy a secret," Remus explained.

"Has she told you about the Wolfsbane potion?" Professor Lupin asked quietly.

Remus shook his head. "What's that?"

"Something Professor Snape is making for me, and you, which will help the both of us during the full moon."

"A cure?" Remus asked hopefully.

"Not exactly, but it's a start," Professor Lupin replied. "Here, take a look at this." Remus watched as the professor rummaged around in his desk and produced a year old edition of the Daily Prophet. Remus took it and looked at it curiously.

_**A LYCANTHROPY CURE?**_

_Damocles Belby today revealed to the London Potions Society a potion he has named Wolfsbane. Belby, who attended Hogwarts School and received Outstanding grades for Potions at both OWL and NEWT level, revealed his discovery to a mixed reaction from the crowd. _

"_The Wolfsbane potion is not a cure for lycanthropy," Belby told a stunned audience who were expecting precisely that. "Instead this is merely the first step towards one, one that will be a welcome relief to werewolves throughout the country."_

_Belby revealed that the Wolfsbane potion has been administered to more than a dozen test subjects with successful results and while the potion does not cure lycanthropy it enables the sufferer to maintain control of his or her mind during the time of the full moon. _

_The reaction from the werewolves has been a positive one and has earned Belby the respect of their community. Katrina Morgan, one of the test subjects spoke tearfully of the first time she transformed after taking the potion. "It was wonderful, I was still me. Instead of feeling my mind slipping away, fighting to stay in control and doomed to lose every time, I was able to remain more myself than ever before. Damocles Belby should be given the Order of Merlin for his work."_

_However, the reaction from other members of society has not been entirely jubilant. _

_Mrs M, who has asked to remain anonymous and fears reprisals expressed the same worry as many others. "Werewolves are dangerous enough normally, giving them back their human minds will simply make things worse. They'll be more organised and more dangerous than ever before. The body of a dangerous wolf, with the mind of a psychopath…it's a blow to those of us who have campaigned for dangerous creature camps to become compulsory for werewolves."_

_There were also mixed reactions from the Ministry of Magic with calls for a closer watch to be kept on Potions grants. "Of course, the Ministry would be ecstatic if a cure was found for lycanthropy," Ms Umbridge, Undersecretary to the Minister informed the wizarding world in an open statement. "But the Wolfsbane potion isn't a cure, is it? Just another way of trying to persuade the rest of the wizarding world that these half-breeds aren't dangerous. We must be on our guard now more than ever before."_

_Page 4 – The reaction of the London Potions Society.  
Page 5 – The potions budget – how are our funds being spent?  
Page 6 – Werewolf crime – an objective analysis on how Wolfsbane may increase or decrease the number of werewolf committed crimes.  
Page 20 – Your say, reader owls on the Wolfsbane potion._

Remus read the article on the front page and looked at the picture of Damocles who was crouched down next to a large wolf. He was petting the animal as one might pet a regular dog.

"Does it really work?" Remus whispered.

"I've only taken it once," Professor Lupin replied. "I was never any good at Potions and it's not available over the shelf yet. Professor Snape made it for me last month since it was thought sensible by Dumbledore for me to test the potion before making the final decision on whether to take the position here. It worked then. It's just as Katrina described. You'll see for yourself soon enough."

"I guess I should have taken Potions too," Remus commented. "I never liked the dungeons though."

"Me neither, it's too enclosed, too much like a cage."

Remus nodded. "What does it taste like?"

"Vile," Professor Lupin replied with a snort. "And adding sugar makes it useless unfortunately."

"Great. I guess I'll find out how awful it is soon enough."

"No doubt. The full moon's not for a couple of weeks but we have to take the potion daily during the week leading up to it."

Remus nodded and placed the newspaper back on the desk. "Is it worth it?"

"Absolutely."

"And now you're teaching at Hogwarts," Remus commented, almost to himself.

"Indeed, and I'm told that you will be in one of my classes, along with the rest of the marauders."

"This is going to be awkward, isn't it?"

"Only if we let it."

"We have the same name, people are going to notice and…"

"And you don't like being the centre of attention," Professor Lupin finished, startling Remus with his words. "Don't look so surprised. You are me, as I used to be anyway. It wasn't so long ago that I can't remember how I felt, how I still feel. I did my first class this morning and I was terrified. Even more than when I got sorted on my first day here."

"Did it go all right?"

"It went great," Professor Lupin grinned. "Much better than I was expecting. But back to the other issue…I think if anyone except the rest of the marauders and Lily asks we say that you're my nephew. We'll say I have a brother and you are his son, and named after me. It will explain not only the name but also the resemblance between us. Not that there is much of one these days, but just in case."

Remus nodded quietly.

"I sense there's something on your mind though," Professor Lupin asked.

"I was just wondering what had happened to the others, why none of the other marauders were making the potion for you, they're all really good at Potions and…"

"Well you already know why Sirius hasn't been making it," Professor Lupin pointed out. "He's been incarcerated in Azkaban for twelve years, right up until his recent escape. As for the others…"

"Professor?" Remus asked as a faraway look came across the teacher's face.

Professor Lupin shook his head and appeared to gather his thoughts together. "James and Peter are…there's no easy way to say this…they're…"

"Dead?" Remus guessed. "In the war?"

Professor Lupin nodded silently and Remus stood up, unsure whether to approach the teacher and say something or whether to leave. "You should get going," Professor Lupin suggested.

Remus nodded, grateful for the escape he'd been offered. "I'll see you in class then."

"Thursday, I believe," Professor Lupin replied.

Remus nodded again and ducked out of the door.

Dead? James and Peter were dead? Sirius was on the run from Azkaban and his other two friends were dead?

How could this have happened?

Why was he the only one left? He'd never been any good on his own, he hated anything that isolated him from his friends, so how had this happened? How had he, of all the marauders, the werewolf for crying out loud, ended up the only one with a normal life?

* * *

Remus was stretched out on the sofa in the room of requirement when the rest of his friends burst through the door. One look at the expressions on the faces of James and Sirius told him that the Potions class had not gone well.

"I'm telling you, he hates me!" Sirius complained as he threw his bag into the corner and collapsed onto the sofa beside Remus.

"I take it Potions wasn't quite as you were expecting?" Remus asked with a forced smile.

"That greasy git took loads of points off us, put James and Peter in detention, and then just when we were leaving the room he called me by my full name." Sirius buried his face in a cushion and continued to grumble about the evilness that was Severus Snape.

"Did anyone hear him?" Remus asked.

"He made sure of that," James confirmed. "He called me by my full name as well. He did it on purpose."

"When we were leaving I heard two of the Slytherins say something about him looking just like him," Peter added. "They had to be talking about Sirius looking like the posters."

"He hates me!" Sirius whined again.

"Well what do you expect?" Lily snapped. "You hex him all the time and expect what? Hugs and kisses and a cheerful reunion?"

"Eww," Sirius shivered violently at the thought.

"I'd have expected him to grow up a bit in the last decade or so," James replied as he patted Sirius reassuringly on the shoulder.

"Why? It's not like you lot are showing any signs of maturity," Lily replied with a sweeping glance of contempt around the room.

"That's a bit harsh," Remus said. "We're still in school, we're allowed to be a bit juvenile."

Lily rolled her eyes and dumped her bag on the floor. "I'm going to go to the library for a bit."

"You can get any books you want in there," Remus pointed out as he gestured towards the door to their own private study room.

"Fine, I need a break from the testosterone in this room," Lily amended before exiting the room with a sigh of impatience.

"So what did McGonagall want you for?" Peter asked.

"I hadn't finished complaining about Snivellus yet," Sirius whined.

"You can moan about him any time," Peter pointed out. "Remus?"

"She wanted me to speak with the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," Remus explained, feeling his face flush with embarrassment.

"Because of you being a werewolf?" James asked.

"Partly," Remus hedged.

"So how long has the teacher been here?" Sirius asked. "First term right? The job's cursed, I'm telling you."

"You don't know that," James argued. "Just because we've had six teachers in six years."

"Actually Padfoot's right," Remus interrupted. "It's his first term and from what I've heard it's been one a year from our time to this one."

"So the Defence teacher wanted to make sure you're not all dangerous and rabid," Sirius commented with a snort of contempt. "Obviously this one's a right loser like that berk we had in third year."

"Er…"

"What?" Sirius asked. "He was a berk. He knew as much about Defence Against the Dark Arts as a muggle rock star."

"Um. He wasn't checking if I was rabid or anything," Remus mumbled. "It's me."

"What's you?"

"The Defence teacher," Remus blurted. He knew there was no point in dragging it out, it would just make the teasing worse.

"Are you saying, what I think you're saying?" James asked as he sank to the floor stunned. "You, like in the old you, is going to be our teacher?"

"Yeah," Remus whispered as he buried his face in his hands. "Come on, get it over with. Let the teasing commence."

"I'm not going to tease you," Peter said. "Though I might make a few choice comments now and then about Padfoot fancying a teacher."

"Hey!" Sirius shot Peter a glare as he pulled Remus's hands away from his face. "I think it's great that you get to be a teacher."

"Really?"

"Really. I bet you're really good at it too. You're always helping the rest of us out. You'll be a great teacher."

"You think so?"

"I know so. And think about what this means, it means you really made something of your life, in spite of everything. I always knew you could do it."

Sirius lifted one hand and pushed Remus's hair back out of his eyes. "You'll be my favourite teacher, ever, I just know it."

Remus smiled back, James and Peter momentarily forgotten.

"Urgh," James interrupted. "Could you two please get room if you're going to start making out again?"

Sirius laughed and turned back to James. "Just think about it Prongs, Professor Moony. No homework, or at least he'll let us get away with handing it in late, he won't take points from Gryffindor if we're late or messing about. It'll be wonderful."

"You're not going to give him a hard time in class are you?" Remus asked, a warning note in his voice.

"Of course not, I'm sure he likes pranking just as much as you do. He'll like seeing his old friends again. I know it!"

"But he's a teacher now, not a marauder."

"Once a marauder, always a marauder," Peter said with a grin. "And if Professor Moony has forgotten how to be one, we'll have to remind him."

"So now we know what Padfoot and Moony are up to, what do you think we're doing Wormtail?"

"You're probably an international Quidditch star," Peter replied. "As for me…who knows?"

Remus bit his lip and tried to concentrate on anything other than the speculation of what James and Peter had made of their lives. He didn't want to be the one to tell them they were dead. For just a little while he wanted them to have the fun of guessing where their other selves might be.

"I'm probably married to Evans," James said with a grin. "Maybe we've even got kids here at Hogwarts now. Wouldn't that be something if we're sharing classes with one of our kids?"

"Oh, it'd be something," Sirius snorted. "Something downright weird."

"No more weird than me being taught by myself," Remus pointed out.

"This is going to be so much fun," Sirius laughed. "My Moony, a teacher. I can't wait!"

* * *

A/N: The next update will be on Once in a Blue Moon since I left it on an evil cliffhanger and far more people are waiting on that story than this one - or at least far more people have told me that they are anyway. This story as such might not be updated for a couple of weeks, especially since the next Sims 2 EP comes out this week and I am likely to spend most, if not all, of next weekend exploring that.


	4. Of Fleas and Fates

A/N: Yes, I know I said there wouldn't be an update this weekend. However you can all bow down to the following and thank them for this one:-

EA Games - who declare the UK to be second class citizens and not deserving of their games at the same time as the US.

Amazon UK - who charge for first class postage but don't deliver a first class service.

The Royal Mail - who didn't deliver my game on Saturday morning like they were supposed to.

Which means I get to write this weekend and will be simming next weekend instead.

* * *

Of Fleas and Fates

James walked out of the dormitory and into their private common room with a grimace of annoyance on his face. "I give up!" he declared loudly before turning to Remus. "He's _your_ boyfriend, _you_ sort him out!"

"I already tried," Remus calmly replied. "He won't get out of bed for me either."

Peter snickered quietly, having been a brief witness to Remus's attempts to coax Sirius out of bed for breakfast. The attempt had merely resulted in Remus being tugged back into bed and Peter making a rapid exit from the room with his eyes covered.

"What's his problem anyway?" Lily asked impatiently.

"It's because everyone was staring at him during dinner last night," Remus explained. "He's not used to it."

Lily snorted.

"I mean he's not used to the suspicion and hostility," Remus amended. "Since Snape mentioned his name in class he's seeing hostility everywhere."

"I still say they were staring at James just as much as him," Peter commented. "I'd swear I heard someone at the next table say something about him looking just like Harry, whoever that is."

"Did you tell Black that?" Lily asked.

Peter looked offended at the suggestion that he hadn't. "Of course I did."

"I say we leave him to it," James muttered. "He's turned into Padfoot now, so we can't even drag him to class."

"He's Padfoot?" Peter asked with a smirk.

"Yeah," James replied. "He tried to bite me too." James held out his hand dramatically. Remus leaned closer to look at the appendage, naturally there wasn't a mark on it.

"I'll go get him out of bed," Peter said with a grin. Remus watched him grab his wand and head into the dormitory.

"You little git!" Sirius screamed from dormitory.

A moment later Peter ran back into the room; Sirius, scratching his neck with some vigour, was hard on his heels.

"How did you manage it?" asked an astonished James as Peter tried to evade Sirius's grasp by hiding behind his back.

"How did he manage it?" Sirius screeched, prompting Lily to put her hands over her ears at the offensive noise. "I'll tell you how he managed it! The little git just summoned a hundred fleas to attack me!"

Remus tried not to smile as he suddenly saw the small red marks on Sirius's hands, face and neck.

"Maybe you should go get something from Madam Pomfrey?" suggested James as he too tried to duck out of Sirius's way, just in case the critters decided he was a suitable alternative banquet to the one they currently had.

"And how do I explain how I've got dog fleas on me?" Sirius snapped. He moved from scratching his neck to his head, swearing loudly. "Moony, help me."

"You keep them away from me," Remus warned. "Lily, would you like to join me for breakfast?"

"Love to," Lily replied as they hurried out of the door.

Remus heard Sirius screaming 'traitor' just as the door closed and he felt a faint twinge of guilt.

"He'll be fine," Lily said as they hurried down the stairs.

"Oh I know that," Remus replied. "I was just wondering how he'll punish me for deserting him in his hour of need."

"It's hardly an hour of need."

"It is for Padfoot," Remus pointed out with a sigh. "You know he's given to being overly dramatic."

"I seem to recall you have your own moments when it comes to dramatics," Lily commented with a smirk.

Remus grinned. "What can I say? Padfoot's a bad influence on me."

"No comment," Lily muttered.

* * *

"Our first class with Professor Moony," James whispered as they took their seats in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and waited for the appearance of Professor Lupin. "This is going to be great!"

Remus flushed and ducked his head, wondering what sort of mischief his friends were going to combine for the next hour.

"Cheer up, Moony," Sirius whispered encouragingly.

"It's going to be awful," Remus muttered as he buried his face in his hands.

"Nonsense," Sirius replied with a wide grin.

"Not that it isn't great that you're no longer moping in the dorm…" Remus began.

"You didn't think I'd miss _your_ class, did you?" Sirius interrupted. He squeezed Remus's hand encouragingly and, despite the rest of the students in the room, Remus didn't pull away and instead squeezed back.

They were still holding hands, despite Remus's half-hearted efforts to disentangle their fingers, when the door to the classroom swung open and Professor Lupin entered. "Good afternoon sixth years." He greeted the class with a wide smile, although Remus could detect a slight nervousness in his manner. He wondered if the nerves were due to it still being his first week of teaching, or the presence of the marauders in his class.

"This term we're going to be concentrating on non-verbal spells," Professor Lupin announced. "Now who can tell me the main advantage of using non-verbal spells?"

Remus felt the warm digits of Sirius's hand slip from around his own as the other boy's hand shot into the air. Remus wondered if he looked as surprised as the professor; Sirius never raised his hand in class. It wasn't that he didn't know the answers, he just never bothered. Now he was practically jumping up and down in his seat to get Professor Lupin's attention.

Behind him he heard James cough 'creep' into his hand and he snickered along with Peter. Sirius took no notice and waited, quite impatiently, to be called on.

"Yes, Mr Black," Professor Lupin finally asked.

"It means you can cast a spell when your mouth is otherwise occupied," Sirius explained with a wide grin.

"I guess that might be an advantage," Professor Lupin replied doubtfully.

"Oh it is," Sirius nodded his head enthusiastically. "Like the other night I forget to cast an imperturbable charm on the bed and by the time they…" he pointed back at Peter and James, "…had got my attention to let me know…well my mouth was definitely engaged on more enjoyable matters." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, shot a lecherous glance at Remus, then to make his performance complete, winked at the professor.

Remus groaned and put his head on the desk in defeat. _Just kill me now. _So much for discretion!

Several students were openly laughing and Remus heard one female voice whisper 'damn, so he _is_ gay' to one of her friends.

Thankfully Professor Lupin was much more adept at composing himself than Remus was and the class soon settled back down again under his guidance. "Well yes, Mr Black, I can certainly see how non-verbal spells would be useful in that situation. However that is not precisely what I was thinking of. In a duel, which is after all what Defence Against the Dark Arts is about preparing you for, there is another advantage to non-verbal spells. Can anyone tell me that advantage?"

Several hands were raised and Professor Lupin called on Miss Travers of Slytherin who correctly explained that the advantage was that an opponent would not know what spell was being cast against them.

Then after fifteen minutes of questions, answers and explanations, the class was divided into pairs in order to practice their non-verbal hexes and jinxes.

Even without the advantage of having had half a year of sixth year classes already, the marauders knew they were each more than adept at non-verbal spells. Which naturally meant that they were alternately showing off and slacking off within a matter of minutes.

"Not working with Mr Pettigrew?" Professor Lupin asked Remus quietly as he made his way around the room.

"No," Sirius replied in his stead. "I always work with Moony these days."

"You do?" Professor Lupin asked in surprise. "You don't work with James?"

"Not these days." Sirius smiled warmly at Remus, then winked at Professor Lupin once more. "Can't risk either of those insensitive brutes injuring my Moony, can I?"

"Your…?" Professor Lupin faltered as he looked from one boy to the other and back again. "Er…are you two really…er…" His voice dropped to barely more than a whisper and his face was becoming flushed in a strangely familiar manner.

"Yes Professor," Remus replied when it was clear that Sirius was going to do nothing more than stand with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"Oh." Professor Lupin flushed even redder and he rubbed distractedly at the back of his neck. "Well I…um…it's a little unexpected. In all these years I'd never realised you were…um…"

"You didn't?" Sirius asked. "But aren't you…like us?"

"Apparently not," Professor Lupin replied with a smile and a shake of his head.

"You don't know what you're missing," Sirius smirked and waggled his eyebrows again.

Professor Lupin looked like he was about to choke until Remus spoke up. "Remember what Professor Dumbledore said. The others never visited this world. You never got jealous of the other you and we never…you know."

"No wonder I ended up in Azkaban," Sirius joked. "No Moony to keep me out of trouble."

"I think you'll find that I did everything to keep you out of trouble," Professor Lupin whispered, his eyes narrowing in a manner so unlike Remus that Sirius took an involuntary step back. Then the shadow of unknown horrors passed by. "But it wasn't enough. I failed my best friends."

Professor Lupin looked down at the ground and took a shuddering breath in an effort to compose himself.

"What happened Professor?" asked Sirius. He raised his hand towards the older man's shoulder, forgetting for the moment that it wasn't Moony he was reaching for. He was startled when the professor drew back sharply at the idea of his touch.

"I'm sorry," Professor Lupin said as he stepped back and looked nervously around the room to see if anyone had spotted Sirius's slip. "This isn't the time or the place for this discussion."

Remus nodded understandingly, knowing that the discussion about James and Peter's fates could not be put off forever, but hoping that it could. Thankfully the class was not the place for the discussion and he instead moved into the opening position for a duel. "Ready Black?" he asked.

"I'm always ready," Sirius bowed low and winked at the Professor again. "For anything!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you," Professor Lupin replied before he moved off to check on another pair of students.

"Ready now?" Remus asked impatiently.

"Give it your best shot Lupin!" Sirius replied with a grin.

"Always do," Remus replied with a grin of his own. "Now you'll find out what happens when you're idiotic enough to flirt with a teacher in front of your boyfriend."

"Jealous?"

"I seem to recall you're the one with the record for jealous reactions," Remus pointed out with a smirk. "First the other you, then Abby…"

"Maybe I thought you needed a taste of it?"

"Maybe you'd like a life of celibacy from now on?" Remus countered sweetly as he pointed his wand lower.

Sirius lowered his own wand to cover himself protectively, giving Remus the opening to send a spell to throw him backwards towards the cushions that were littering the floor.

"You don't play fair," Sirius groaned as he looked up at the smirking Remus.

"I play to win." Remus reached out to help Sirius to his feet, and wasn't even remotely surprised when he felt himself being pulled down on top of the other boy.

Across the room, Lily Evans rolled her eyes and turned back to the girl she'd been paired with.

"That's so sweet," Erica said with a simpering sigh.

"Here we go again," Lily muttered.

* * *

"Sirius?" Remus asked later that night after everyone was asleep.

"Hmm?"

"If I tell you something will you promise not to freak out?"

"When do I ever freak out?" Sirius laughed.

"Last week when we arrived here," Remus pointed out.

"Those were extenuating circumstances," Sirius huffed. "What is it that's bothering you?"

"Promise me you won't freak out," Remus repeated as he leaned up on one elbow in order to look Sirius in the eye.

"I promise, I promise," Sirius muttered with a roll of his eyes.

"Professor Lupin told me that James and Peter are dead," Remus whispered.

"In the war?" Sirius asked quietly.

Remus nodded hesitantly. "I went to look up what had happened in the library. I didn't want to tell the others until I knew for sure what had happened."

"And?"

"James and Lily were killed by Voldemort himself," Remus whispered, even though the charm on the bed would ensure that neither of the other boys would hear them.

"Lily too?"

"Well as long as it was the same Lily and not another one," Remus replied. "But can you really see James marrying someone else called Lily instead of the delightful Miss Evans?"

"No," Sirius laughed. "I guess knowing that he married Lily will soften the blow of the rest of the news for Prongs."

"There's more."

"Peter?"

Remus nodded again. "He was killed too."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"According to the books I read – "

"Books? As in more than one?" Sirius interrupted.

"I had to check other sources after I read the first one. I checked every book in the library that covered the topic. There are dozens of them. But I had to be sure. I couldn't say anything until I'd checked. I wanted to find out if there was a mistake. It has to be a mistake. There's no other explanation for it. But all the books say the same thing."

"Moony?"

"Yes?"

"You're rambling. Now what's the bad news that you're trying to tell me?"

"A-according to the books, you killed Peter and a bunch of muggles as well. According to the books you're one of Voldemort's most loyal followers and you killed Peter."

Sirius was quiet for a long time and Remus wondered if he'd done the right thing in telling him what he'd discovered.

"It's not you," he whispered as he snuggled closer to Sirius and wrapped his arms around him. "It's not you."

"Except that makes two worlds now where I'm evil incarnate."

"You wouldn't kill Peter," Remus whispered. "You'd never join Voldemort."

"You don't know that," Sirius snapped and he pulled out of the embrace and turned onto his side, away from Remus's questioning gaze.

"You wouldn't," Remus repeated, louder this time.

"Insanity runs in my family," Sirius said quietly. "Who's to say that I don't eventually succumb to it too?"

"You'd never hurt Peter," Remus said firmly as he pulled on Sirius's shoulder, forcing the other boy onto his back. "You'd never join Voldemort! You'd die first!"

Sirius looked up at the ceiling stubbornly and didn't reply.

"I shouldn't have said anything," Remus sighed. "I knew you wouldn't be able to handle it."

"I can handle it," Sirius finally said. "It's not me. It's just another crazy parallel world where things are messed up. It's not me."

Remus sighed again, this time in relief, and he leaned over to kiss Sirius on the lips.

"What do we do about Prongs and Wormtail?" Sirius asked once they'd pulled apart.

"And Lily," Remus added. "I don't know whether we should tell them. Prongs'll just use it as an excuse to carry on pestering Lily, especially when he finds out about Harry."

"Harry?"

"Harry Potter," Remus nodded. "Their son. He's called The Boy Who Lived in the books I read. He survived the killing curse when he was only a year old."

"No!"

"Yeah. Voldemort tried to kill him after he'd killed James and Lily but he failed and no one knows why. He defeated Voldemort when he was only a year old. Harry's really famous and he's here at Hogwarts."

"He is? He's really here?"

"He's a third year. Looks just like Prongs too, at least from a distance."

"You've seen him?"

"Not close up. But after I realised he was here in the castle I had to see if I could see him."

"That's why you've been staring around the Great Hall at meal times!" Sirius exclaimed as realisation dawned.

"Yeah, he's in Gryffindor with us."

"Where else would he be?" Sirius grinned. "All the Potters have been in Gryffindor."

"Like that means anything," Remus snorted. "All the Blacks have been in Slytherin."

Sirius frowned at his words and Remus gave him a poke in the ribs. "You're in Gryffindor for a reason. It's because you're not like the rest of your family."

Sirius shook his head as though to clear it of his negative thoughts. "You'll have to point him out to me at breakfast tomorrow," he said with a smile.

"Now you know to look for him, you'll find him yourself," Remus laughed. "He has the same build, the same messy hair, wears glasses that are even a similar style, you won't be able to miss him."

"I'm surprised Prongs hasn't spotted him already in that case."

"He's only a third year and we're not in the tower. It's not like we're sharing classes with him and his friends. I've been listening out for gossip about him though."

"Oooh, do tell," Sirius grinned.

"Well he's on the Quidditch team."

"Naturally."

"Plays seeker."

"Not chaser, Prongs'll be disappointed."

"He's been on the team since his first year."

"Maybe he won't be so disappointed then," Sirius laughed.

"Apparently at the end of last term he killed a basilisk."

"What the hell's a basilisk?"

"A giant snake with poisonous fangs that kills you if you look it in the eye."

"And he took this on in second year?" Sirius asked doubtfully. "I think someone's been winding you up, or at least exaggerating."

"Perhaps," Remus admitted. "It does sound a bit unlikely."

Sirius pulled Remus closer again and smiled thoughtfully.

"What are you thinking?" Remus asked.

"I've just thought of the perfect way to prove that I'm not evil like this other Sirius," Sirius announced.

"You don't have anything to prove."

"The dementors are here at Hogwarts to find me, I mean him, right?"

Remus nodded.

"They must think that he'd be coming to attack Harry, since he's the one who stopped Voldemort. So while we're here, we'll protect Harry. It'll be easy, especially since we have the advantage of the map. If Black gets anywhere in the grounds we'll know about it and stop him."

"You don't need to prove anything to me, or to the others."

"Maybe I need to prove it to myself," Sirius whispered.

"So are we going to tell Prongs and the others?" Remus asked.

"Peter will freak out if he finds out I killed him," Sirius sighed. "Maybe we could…"

"Sure Sirius," Remus agreed quietly. "It'll be our secret for the moment."

"I'll be sure to keep this one better than the last one," Sirius promised. "You're not still annoyed at the way I outed us in class are you?"

"I guess not," Remus sighed. "I'm actually surprised you kept quiet as long as you did."

"So am I," Sirius laughed. "And I really am sorry that git in Slytherin hexed you in the hallway because of it."

"I'm not," Remus grinned. "You giving him rabbit ears was the funniest thing I've seen all week."

"In which case me and Prongs had better get some better pranks organised or we'll be losing our reputations as the greatest mischief makers the school has ever seen."

"I think you already have actually."

"Have what?" Sirius asked sleepily.

"Lost that reputation," Remus replied around a wide yawn. "Apparently the Weasley twins are giving you two a run for your money. I heard Professor Flitwick and Hagrid talking about them, and comparing them to you and Prongs."

"They're the red-headed boys in fifth year?" Sirius asked. "The ones Prongs suggested might be his and Lily's sons because of their hair?"

"That's them. Hagrid said he was only praying that there were no joint efforts between the four of you, or rather the six of us. He said he thought the school might not survive it."

"From what I've seen, they seem like fun," Sirius said with a grin. "We'll have to introduce ourselves first thing tomorrow."

"I knew I should have kept my mouth shut and stayed in my own bed tonight," Remus muttered.

"Scandalous idea!" Sirius exclaimed. "You want to ruin what's left of my reputation by sleeping on your own?" He pulled Remus into a tighter hug in case the other boy tried to escape from the bed.

Remus was just drifting off to sleep when he heard a sleepy voice in his ear. "Remus? Do you think the twins would like to see those underwater fireworks we brought with us?"

"Sirius?"

"Yes?"

"Go to bloody sleep."

* * *

AN: More Lily and James in the next chapter which is entitled Mischief Makers United.

I have now put a poll on my profile page in relation to my What If? Lily one shot? If you have read that story (or even if you have only read the summary) feel free to stop by and vote.


	5. Mischief Makers United

Mischief-Makers United

Lily returned to the room of requirement after a leisurely Sunday breakfast to find Peter stretched out on the sofa, his nose buried in a book and a frown on his face. She guessed he was reading something for one his lessons but didn't bother to ask, she had enough homework of her own to do.

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you," Peter warned as she approached the door to their private library.

"Well clearly you're not me!" Lily replied as she pushed open the door. She exited the room far more quickly than she'd entered it. _Was nowhere sacred when it came to hormonal teenage boys?_

"I _did_ warn you," Peter pointed out with a smirk.

Lily felt her face flushing as she tried to form words, any words to describe what she'd just walked in on. "They were…"

"I know," Peter replied with a shrug. "Why do you think I told you not to go in there?"

"But they've got a perfectly good dormitory right over there!" Lily pointed at the door in question. "Why the hell do they feel the need to be using the library for that?"

"Because Sirius wanted to prove he could distract Remus from his books and Pince banned us from the main school library," Peter commented.

"Already?" Lily asked. "What did you do this time?"

Peter shrugged. "Don't know."

"How can you not know?" Lily asked impatiently. _Too many pranks, too few brain cells all round would be my guess._

"Because she apparently banned us in seventh year, back in the seventies," Remus explained as he joined Peter and Lily. Sirius was following close behind him, a look of annoyance on his face.

"Nice one Wormtail!" Sirius snapped. "All you had to do was warn James and Evans not to go in there."

"I did warn her," Peter replied calmly. "She ignored me."

"You could have told me what they were doing?" Lily muttered.

"You could have just listened when I told you not to go in there," Peter countered.

"She probably enjoyed the show," Sirius suggested with a smirk. "Got an eyeful did you Evans?"

"Grow up, Black!" Lily snapped. _Oh great, really mature Evans, couldn't you think of a better comeback than that? _

"Maybe _you _could ask Pince why we were banned from the library?" Sirius suggested. "You could probably talk her into letting us back in as well."

"Why would I do that? Lily asked. "I happen to like using the library on occasions and don't really want to find it bombarded with dungbombs or something equally childish."

"If you tell us what it was that got us banned I'll tell you what I heard Oliver Wood saying about you at dinner last night," Sirius offered with a grin.

Lily felt the heat returning to her face once more. _Oh Merlin, I must be as obvious as Potter is if Black knows I fancy Oliver._ "I r-really couldn't care less what a-anyone says about me," she finally managed to stammer. "I'm going for a walk outside."

"To the Quidditch pitch?" Peter teased.

Lily ignored him rather than risk another weak comeback. Instead she walked out the door and tried her very best to ignore the snickers coming from the three boys behind her.

"Immature, juvenile jerks," she muttered beneath her breath as she hurried down the stairs and out into the crisp autumn air.

"Not talking about me, are you?" a familiar voice asked.

_I swear I don't know how he manages to find me every waking minute! It's like he has some sort of internal radar that successfully zones in on me every time I leave his presence. _

James was grinning at her from the edge of the courtyard fountain and Lily turned to leave rather than succumb to the temptation to push him into the water.

"Hey Evans, you got a minute?" James called.

"No!" Lily yelled back as she quickened her pace. "Places to be, things to do, people to see, busy, busy, busy."

"Maybe I can help?" James called.

"I don't need any help!"

"So I'll see you for lunch then?"

Lily didn't bother to answer, merely waving back at James as she turned the corner and walked right into a certain Gryffindor Quidditch Captain…literally.

Lily stumbled and felt a strong arm catch her just before she hit the stone slabs. "Careful there," Oliver said as he steadied her. "You don't want to wind up in the hospital wing so soon in the school year."

Lily smiled up at him and automatically started comparing this encounter the to time she'd walked into James Potter in a similar manner. Not only had Potter failed to catch her in time, he'd made some lame joke about her falling for him. "I guess you have girls falling for you all the time?" _Oh hell, I didn't just say that out loud, did I?_

"None as pretty as you," Oliver replied with a laugh.

Lily giggled. _Oh no, I'm giggling! What's happening to me?_

"So how are you liking Hogwarts?" Oliver asked. "Is it very different to your old school?"

"Er…rather similar actually."

"Really? I've heard that there's no other school quite like this one. Which one did you go to?"

"Er…" Lily's mind went blank as she tried to recall the name of the obscure wizarding school that Professor McGonagall had said they were to say they were from if anyone asked.

"Obviously, it can't be that great a school, not if you've forgotten it already."

"I'd definitely stay at Hogwarts forever if I could," Lily said. "I love it here."

Oliver nodded in understanding before he started squinting in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. "I think I'm wanted," he said with a nod towards a girl who was waving at him from near the entrance to the player changing rooms.

"I'll bet you are," Lily replied, earning her a startled look from the seventh year.

"That's Katie, one of the chasers on our team. We've got the pitch booked for a practice session."

"I'd better let you get going then."

"You can come and watch if you like. Maybe you'll have a few tips for us, stuff your own school team does that might work for us."

"I'd like that," Lily said with a smile as they made their way towards where Katie was impatiently tapping her foot.

* * *

James slipped the Marauders' Map out of his pocket again to see if he could locate the rest of the marauders, and most especially Remus. Remus would know what to do about this awful turn of events. Remus would have the answer to the problem that James was now facing.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered and tapped the parchment with his wand. Unfortunately there was no sign of the other three boys, nor the room that they had commandeered as their living quarters. James guessed that that meant that they were in the room itself, the only one they knew of in the whole castle that didn't appear on the map, no matter how hard they tried to get it to do so.

Five minutes later and he'd regaled the rest of the marauders with the latest tragedy that had befallen him in his quest to win the heart of, or at least a single bloody date with, Lily Evans.

"She's been on dates before," Sirius pointed out when James had finally paused to take a breath. "Why is this one any different?"

"This one isn't with some nerdy Ravenclaw or dim-witted Hufflepuff!"

"So?"

"It's with a Gryffindor."

"So?"

"The Captain of the Quidditch team!"

"So?"

"He's athletic and handsome and nice and smart and…he's just like me!"

Remus snorted and hid his face in a cushion. Peter meanwhile stuffed a cake into his mouth in order to prevent himself from saying anything. Not that it mattered because Sirius was never one to hold back on saying what needed to be said. "Prongs, have you ever thought that maybe your ego might be stopping you getting a date with Evans?"

"Ego?" James echoed. "I don't have an ego."

Peter started to choke on his cake and Remus was chewing on the cushion, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"You don't understand," James wailed. "She's got a date with someone just like me and she's probably going to fall for him and then forget all about what we've shared."

"Shared?" Peter guffawed.

Remus shook his head and gazed heavenward for inspiration. Sirius wasn't even attempting to hide his amusement. "Look at it this way," he finally said. "Even if she falls head over heels in love with him, she can't stay here and he can't come back with us, so it's doomed before it's even started."

"But then she'll be broken-hearted and enter a convent or something!"

"I don't think Lily's Catholic," Remus pointed out.

"That's not the point, we've got to save her from herself."

"You mean save her for you?" Sirius teased.

"That too!"

"Sorry Prongs, you're on your own with this one," Remus said. "Lily's old enough and sensible enough to make her own decisions about who to date, and I for one am not going to interfere."

"Padfoot will help me then, won't you?" James turned to Sirius hopefully.

"Erm…" Sirius looked from James to Remus, then back to James again.

"It's your choice," Remus said in a tone that even James could tell meant that if Sirius didn't side with him, then he'd be sleeping on his own for the next few nights.

"I think Moony's right," Sirius finally whispered, unable to look James in the eye.

"Wuss," James muttered. "Looks like it's just you and me then, Wormtail?" He turned to where Peter had been sitting moments before but the chair was empty. It looked like he was on his own.

"James?" Remus coughed loudly and rubbed at the back of his neck. "I know this might not be a good time but I wonder if we could use the map this afternoon?"

"What for?" James asked suspiciously.

"Er…" Remus flushed with embarrassment.

"Because we want to find somewhere we can be alone for a bit," Sirius interrupted.

"Why not just use that passage at the back of the mirror on the fourth floor?" James asked.

"It's caved in. Just give us the map for a few hours."

"You don't need the map to get a bit of privacy."

Remus scowled at him. "Fine, I just don't want you using it to sabotage another of Lily's dates. Hand it over."

"Make me!"

Remus pulled out his wand and pointed it threateningly. "The map, please."

James looked thoroughly sulky about it but handed it over anyway.

"Come on Moony," Padfoot said as Remus pocketed the map. "Let's leave him to his moping."

"Some friends you are."

"We _are _your friends," Remus replied. "Which is why we're telling you to back off of Lily for a bit. It's for your own good."

Then the other two boys were gone and James was left alone. He frowned as he stalked into the dormitory and rummaged through his belongings. "At least they didn't confiscate this," he muttered as he pulled out his invisibility cloak.

"It's for her own good," he told himself as he put on the cloak and set off to track down Lily.

* * *

By nine o'clock that night the 'it's for her own good' reason was starting to wear a little thin.

Watching over her was for her own good. It wasn't stalking, no matter what anyone else said to the contrary.

Slipping a babbling beverage into the Quidditch player's drink was necessary. Really, it was. How else would Lily be able to see that she had set her sights on some brainless idiot?

Maybe he'd used more water-resistant fireworks than was strictly necessary but at least they had got the job done. The job being, separating Lily and Oliver from where they had been standing far too close to each other at the edge of the lake.

Unfortunately for James, he'd forgotten that Lily now knew about his invisibility cloak and was therefore hot on his heels as he sped through the school. He tried to slow down in order to more carefully conceal himself beneath the cloak but it was easier said than done.

He finally lost her somewhere between the fourth and fifth floors and he leaned against the wall to catch his breath. The corridors of the castle were mostly deserted now. Only teachers, prefects and mischief-makers were still around. The sound of two sets of footsteps drew him up against the wall and he tried to bring his breathing down to a more normal level. What was the use being invisible if he was going to be panting like a marathon runner and giving away his position?

"I'm telling you George, it said Sirius Black was down this corridor with Remus Lupin."

"But Fred, why would Professor Lupin be helping a murderer get into the castle?"

James held his breath as the voices drew nearer. He could tell that they were just around the corner.

"I don't know why," Fred said. "But it definitely said they were down here, and the map's not been wrong before."

_The map?_ James frowned, thinking that this sounded suspiciously like a certain other map. Had Remus and Sirius been so caught up in each other that they'd lost the precious map?

The two speakers were walking right towards him and he had to step back to avoid being walked into by the one on the right-hand side. It was the Weasley twins, James realised, having heard a lot about them already, the pranksters and beaters on the Gryffindor Quidditch team were well known throughout the school.

"So where are they?" George asked. "And why haven't we just gone to Professor McGonagall?"

"Because McGonagall will want to know _how_ we know, and why we were out of the tower after curfew."

"I think she'd overlook those things if we actually helped catch Black."

"No sense in risking it. I think we'd better have another look at the map and see where they've disappeared to."

James watched as George pulled a familiar sheet of parchment from his robes. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he said and tapped it with his wand.

"It says they're in the Quidditch supply room," Fred commented. "What are they…"

James stood silently as both boys suddenly turned to look directly at where he was standing. He'd forgotten that even someone under an invisibility cloak appeared on the map, he silently cursed Remus for never managing to fix that particular quirk in their invention.

There was nothing else for it, James realised, and he pulled the cloak off and revealed himself to the twins. "I think you have something of mine there," he said, pointing to the map.

"Yours?" Fred asked with a grin as he tucked the parchment back into his robes. "Finders keepers, I say."

"I say you nicked it off my friends," James replied.

"Nicked it?" Fred exclaimed. "Us? Nick stuff? Well not off a fellow student. We got this little piece of parchment from Filch's office years ago."

"Years ago?" James whispered and he realised his mistake. The map was the same one, it had simply found its way into the hands of a new generation of mischief-makers. "I guess an introduction or two is in order?"

"Well according to the map, you're James Potter," George commented. "And you've got to be a relation to Harry, right?"

"Harry?"

"Harry Potter, in third year. Looks like the very spit of you."

"Never met him, but the Potters have branches all over the place so…"

"You've never met the famous Harry Potter?" Fred asked. "We'll have to introduce you some time. He's the best friend of our brother Ron. But that will have to wait for later, we're on the trail of the murderer, Sirius Black, at the moment." He turned to nod towards the supply room.

James laughed out loud. "You won't find a murderer in there."

"According to the map he's in there with Professor Lupin," George explained. "And the map doesn't lie."

"No, it doesn't," James grinned. "But it can sometimes be misleading." He walked over to the door and banged on it loudly. No sound escaped the room, but James knew that that was merely an indication that this time one or the other of them had remembered to cast the imperturbable charm. "Padfoot! Moony! When you're done in there I'll be in the Ancient Runes classroom down the corridor. And hurry it up!" He banged on the door again for good measure.

He walked a few paces down the corridor before he realised that the twins weren't following him. "Well what are you standing there for?" he asked. "Don't you want to know about the map?"

Fred moved forward first, with George close behind him. "So are you Prongs or Wormtail?" he asked.

"Prongs," James confirmed.

"So it really is your map?" George asked.

"You can keep it," James offered, now that he knew, or at least was fairly certain, that their own was still safely in Remus's possession.

Then Remus himself walked through the door, Sirius grumbling behind him. "Prongs, I take back everything I ever said about you and Evans having nothing in common."

James looked at Sirius in surprise. "You do?"

"Yeah. You both have the worst sense of timing, and a complete lack of respect for the privacy of others."

"What were you doing in the Quidditch supply room?" Fred asked. "If you were pranking the Quidditch team we'd kind of like to know about it."

"We're beaters," added George.

"We weren't setting up a prank in there," Remus promised.

"You weren't?" Fred asked suspiciously.

"They weren't," James assured him. "As for what they were doing, you're better off not knowing."

"So what's so important?" Sirius asked impatiently.

"Moony, do you still have the map?"

Remus nodded silently, casting a meaningful glance towards the twins.

"Hand it over a minute, will you?" James held out his hand and snapped his fingers impatiently.

"Please?" Remus chided.

"Please?" James whined.

Remus was hesitant but he passed the parchment over.

James pulled out his wand. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." He tapped the parchment and the map appeared as it always did. He looked up at the twins and smirked.

Fred pulled out their own map, still activated from earlier and placed it beside the other. The only difference between the two maps was the age of the parchment, time having taken its toll on the one that was now in the possession of the twins.

George leaned in closer to compare the two. "They both say the same thing, that you two are Remus Lupin and Sirius Black."

"We are," Sirius replied. "I'm Padfoot, Remus is Moony, James here is Prongs and Peter, who's around somewhere no doubt, is Wormtail."

"The Marauders," James grinned with a small flourishing bow. Remus snickered, earning him a glare. So what if he couldn't pull off the bow with the same casual elegance as Sirius?

"And it's just an amazing coincidence that two of you share your names with the new Defence teacher and an escaped murderer?" George asked.

"You could call it that," Remus commented. "I'm not a teacher and Padfoot here, isn't a murderer. We're just…"

"Time travellers?" Fred guessed.

"Inter-dimensional," Remus corrected. "At least that's what Dumbledore called it."

Sirius gave a wide and very noticeable yawn. "And before Moony launches into a long and complicated explanation, let's move to a more interesting topic. Did you know that the teachers are positively dreading the day the Weasley twins and the infamous marauders join forces?"

Fred and George grinned widely. "Are they really?"

"Oh yes," Sirius smirked. "Which means that our first joint effort, as the best pranksters Hogwarts has ever seen, has got to be spectacular."

Everyone except Remus was grinning widely. Remus merely rolled his eyes and it was then that George spotted a certain shiny badge pinned to his robes. "They made a marauder, a prefect?" he asked in surprise.

"We're the only four boys in our year in Gryffindor," Remus explained. "It's not like they had much choice."

"So you join in the pranks?" George asked hesitantly.

"Course he does," Sirius laughed. "Moony here has masterminded most of them."

"A pranking prefect," Fred laughed. "Bloody brilliant."

"And speaking as a prefect," Remus began, his lip twitching slightly as a grin threatened to escape. "Speaking as a prefect, we are all out of bounds after curfew so how about we take this discussion back to our rooms?"

"You're not going to send us back to Gryffindor Tower?" George asked.

"Would you go if I tried to?" Remus replied.

"Probably not."

"Then check the map…er…maps, and let's get out of here before someone who'll actually deduct points comes along and catches us."

"Pity we haven't got a second invisibility cloak as well," James commented as he passed his own to Remus. Fred and George looked at him in surprise. "Well it always helps to have a prefect on side, so even if the rest of us get caught, Moony won't be, and he won't lose his badge."

Fred looked like he was about to say something but a nudge in the ribs from George stopped him before he'd done more than open his mouth. James wondered what that was about, not to mention the look akin to relief on Sirius's face when Fred had been stopped from speaking. Shaking his head a little he waved towards the door. "After you Mister Moony."

Remus, now invisible to everyone in the room, opened the door and stepped into the corridor.

"Mister Weasley…" Sirius bowed elegantly, earning him a contemptuous snort from James.

"Why thank you, Mister Padfoot," Fred replied with a bow of his own.

"Some time tonight would be good," Remus hissed from the doorway. "And don't forget the maps."

"As if we would," all four boys replied in synchronisation. "Mischief-makers never forget the tools of their trade," Sirius added with a grin.

"Though apparently they lose them on occasion," James commented. "Remind me to find out exactly how our map got confiscated in the first place. We don't want that happening again, do we?"

"Ah, but if it never gets confiscated, we'll never nick it from Filch and the greatest pranksters ever born won't be united in their common cause." Fred nodded seriously.

"So I'll sneak it into his office on our last day or something," James suggested. "Or we could make a copy. I've always thought that having one each would be a good idea."

"Why haven't you got one each?" Fred asked as they finally made their way down the corridor.

"Always planned to do more," Sirius explained. "But we haven't perfected this one yet."

"Looks pretty good to me," George said as he consulted the map in question.

"Still shows up people in invisibility cloaks though," James grinned as he pointed to Remus, walking alongside them on each of their maps. "There are a few other kinks to work out as well. We'll get it sorted one day."

"So how about those nicknames?" Fred asked. "We've spent nearly four years trying to figure out what they mean. You're going to tell us, aren't you?"

James looked at Sirius who was looking towards where Remus was standing. They could see from the map that their friend had come to a very abrupt halt.

"Maybe later," Remus's muffled voice came from beneath the cloak.

In that moment, James knew exactly what Remus was thinking. James, Sirius and Peter had been smart enough to figure out his secret, were the Weasley twins, the next generation of pranksters, equally clever? And more importantly, would they be as understanding if they knew the truth?


	6. A Different Kind of Full Moon

A Different Kind of Full Moon 

"Lupin!"

Remus halted at the harshly familiar voice of Severus Snape.

"Yes?" he asked once the Potions Master had caught up with him.

"Yes, Sir," Snape reminded him and Remus couldn't help but roll his eyes. Power mad were the words that immediately sprang to mind when he thought of what his friends had told him about their Potions lessons with Snape.

"Yes…Sir," Remus dutifully replied with only a slight trace of annoyance.

"You didn't stop by for the Wolfsbane this morning," Snape accused.

"I was going to come get it after lessons," Remus explained. "It tastes so awful, and I didn't want to miss any lessons if it made me ill."

"The potion isn't designed to tantalise your taste buds," Snape sneered. "It's to stop you becoming a murderous monster tomorrow night."

"I'll come by after class," Remus promised.

"I might not be available then," Snape argued. "Come and get the potion now."

"But…"

"Ten points from Gryffindor, for arguing," Snape gloated with a vicious smirk. "Would you like to make it twenty?"

Remus shook his head and turned back down the corridor towards Snape's office.

"Can you do me a note to explain why I'm late for my next class?" Remus asked, without any real hope of obtaining one.

Snape replied "certainly not" and Remus could only hope that he didn't wind up losing Gryffindor even more house points for his tardiness.

* * *

"Nice of you to join us, Mr Lupin," McGonagall snapped as he eased his way into his seat.

"Sorry Professor," Remus mumbled.

"And why did you feel that you didn't need to be on time for my class?" McGonagall asked as she glared at him.

"Professor Snape needed to see me about a potion," Remus whispered, his face reddening as the students stared at him, wondering why someone who wasn't in Potions needed to see the Potions Professor about one.

"Ah." McGonagall nodded in realisation and her face softened slightly. "Well let's waste no more of the lesson on this. As I just explained, you'll be working in pairs this lesson as you practice transfiguring each other's facial features."

Remus felt the heat leaving his face as the Professor explained the lesson, and the rest of the class stopped staring at him, wondering why he was late, and how he'd managed to get away with it. At least nearly everyone had stopped staring at him, there were three sets of eyes that were still eyeing him curiously, the eyes of the other marauders.

As soon as they moved on from the lecture part of the lesson and onto the practical, Sirius whispered the question he'd clearly been dying to ask. "What did Snivellus want with you?"

"Just a potion he's been brewing for me," Remus replied evasively.

"It's probably poison or something," Peter hissed from the neighbouring table.

"Wormtail's right," Sirius said. "You've not drunk anything he's brewed for you, have you?"

"It's to help with you-know-what," Remus whispered. "Professor Lupin takes it too."

"It's a cure?" Sirius asked doubtfully.

"Of course not, it's just something to help."

"But how does it help?"

"Well it might not actually," Remus shrugged. "It's never been tested on someone my age before. It might not do anything."

"But what's it supposed to do?"

"It's supposed to help," Remus hissed. "Can we please at least pretend to be concentrating on the lesson?"

Sirius ignored his request and didn't even attempt to pick up his wand from where it was lying on the table. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing," Remus lied. He could tell that Sirius didn't believe him and wondered if he'd made the right choice by not telling his friends about the Wolfsbane potion just yet. He'd thought about it a lot. On the one hand he was excited about the idea of keeping his mind during the full moon, but on the other he knew that once they returned home it would only make it that much more difficult when the potion was no longer available to him. He had decided to wait and see if the potion actually did help him before even mentioning it to the others. If it did help he fully intended to break as many school rules as was necessary in order to get the potion, or at least the recipe for how to brew it, back to their own world. In the meantime he didn't want to raise false hopes.

There was also one other small reason why he'd decided to keep the potion secret from his friends…he was curious to see how they behaved on the night of the full moon. Were they as reckless as he feared or had he really been worrying over nothing ever since they'd begun joining him in their animagus forms? The only way to find out for sure was to keep his mind and observe them for himself. He was actually quite looking forward to it.

* * *

"Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey?" Sirius suggested as he put a hand on Remus's forehead, only to have it slapped away immediately.

"I'm not ill," Remus groaned. "It's just that the potion tastes awful. I'll be fine as soon as I've had something to eat to take the taste away."

"But you're looking pale."

"Of course I'm bloody pale," Remus snapped. "It's the full moon tonight, remember?"

"You're not usually this irritable before the full moon," Sirius pointed out.

"Yes, I am. I just don't usually have you harping on about poisonous potions for hours on end."

"But it's Snape that brewed it!"

"He's a teacher, he's not going to start poisoning students."

"He might if it's you."

"You and James perhaps, but not me," Remus smirked. "I'm not the one he really hates. Besides, I've been taking the potion all week and I've not dropped dead yet, have I?"

Remus tuned out Sirius's reply, which was simply more of the same. Instead he concentrated on rummaging through Peter's belongings in search of the stash of chocolate he'd fleetingly seen the previous day.

Finally he realised that Sirius had said something that required an answer from him. "Sorry Padfoot, what did you say?"

"I asked if Professor Lupin was going to be in the shrieking shack with you tomorrow night."

"Oh," Remus hadn't anticipated that his friends might assume he would be sharing his monthly prison with his older self. "No, Professor Lupin has other arrangements."

"Good." Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. "We don't want him cramping our style, do we? Being a teacher and all, well he might decide that he has to give us detention for joining you out there."

"He wouldn't do that."

"You don't know that," Sirius pointed out. "He's not exactly like you."

Remus nodded thoughtfully and knew that Sirius was right. Professor Lupin wasn't exactly like himself, but he also knew that the older man would turn a blind eye to the activities of the marauders on the night of the full moon, just like he'd done when he was at school.

* * *

Remus arrived in the Shrieking Shack, hopeful that the Wolfsbane would work for him, just as it had done for Professor Lupin the month before.

"It's just a precaution," Madam Pomfrey assured him. "Just in case the dosage was wrong for you."

"I understand," Remus replied with a nod. "You'd better hurry back though, if it was wrong then you're cutting it a little fine to get out of here before the moon rises."

"Oh dear, you're right of course." Madam Pomfrey patted him on the shoulder and hurried back into the tunnel. Normally she wouldn't have taken him all the way to the shack herself, but she'd wanted to check that the tunnel was still secure. Even though Dumbledore had checked it himself, Poppy Pomfrey was a worrier and had had to see it with her own two eyes. "I'm not as quick as I used to be," was her last comment before she disappeared out of sight.

"Here comes the moment of truth," Remus muttered as he looked out of the window and felt the stretching of his body in a familiarly painful manner.

It was still painful, excruciatingly so, but Remus knew almost immediately that the Wolfsbane potion had worked. His mind didn't slip away from him as the wolf took over his body, instead he remained himself.

It was almost like being an animagus, he thought to himself as he stretched out on the floor and waited for his friends to arrive.

Wormtail was the first to scurry into the room and Remus jumped up excitedly when he saw his friend appear. Padfoot was close behind him, leaping about jubilantly with an enthusiasm that Remus found it exhausting just to watch. He'd always known that Sirius had enjoyed the nights of the full moon but he'd never truly appreciated how puppy-like he was at the time.

For the first time Remus wondered what they were going to do that night. From the reports of his friends, what normally happened was that they let the wolf out of the shack and let him take the lead. They kept him in line and out of trouble, though there had been a few close calls, but it was always the wolf who was in charge.

Remus looked out of the window and in the distance he could see Gryffindor Tower where there were still a few lights on. Most of the students would be tucked up in bed by now and Remus thought longingly of his own comfy four poster bed in the room of requirement. He didn't try to stifle the yawn that these musings brought on.

He turned to Padfoot and watched as the dog looked at him curiously, his head was cocked to one side in a questioning manner. Peter was already moving towards the front door, outside of which James would be waiting as Prongs.

He knew his friends looked forward to the nights of the full moon nearly as much as he dreaded them. Knowing that, he pushed thoughts of his comfortable bed out of his mind and followed after Peter. Padfoot was close beside him as they made their way out into the cool night air. Remus stopped on the front step and sniffed at the air, wondering which way to go. He'd hesitated long enough that Padfoot was once again looking at him curiously.

Remus wondered whether his boyfriend would figure out what had happened before the night was over.

* * *

Sirius looked at Moony as he stood sniffing the air on the doorstep of the Shrieking Shack. This wasn't anything unusual of course, the wolf had always sniffed at the air in a similar manner, searching the winds for the smell of humans, of meat, of prey. But this time there was something different about the way the wolf was behaving. Sirius couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something wasn't quite right.

For the next hour he watched Moony carefully, but the feeling didn't abate, if anything it intensified.

Moony had always been eager to escape the confines of the shack, and Sirius couldn't recall a single occasion when the wolf hadn't been the first out of the door. Nor did Moony usually head for the Forbidden Forest to run. They normally ended up there, but it was the guiding of Sirius and James that brought about that result. Moony normally wanted to go to Hogsmeade, or occasionally Hogwarts. But this time the wolf didn't seem to have any intention of going towards the populated areas.

It wasn't that this didn't make a refreshing change, but it wasn't normal behaviour for the werewolf, and that worried Sirius more than he wanted to admit.

* * *

"Did you notice something odd about Moony tonight?" Sirius asked after they'd left Remus in the Shrieking Shack and were making their way back to their rooms.

"He didn't seem as bloodthirsty," Peter commented. "You guys barely had to work to keep him in line."

"Exactly!" Sirius exclaimed. "Do you agree Prongs?"

"Yeah," James replied. "I barely had to break a sweat tonight."

"Moony wasn't agitated when we arrived at the shack either," Sirius commented. "He wasn't trying to escape or anything. He was just sitting there, waiting for us."

"It was weird," Peter agreed as he began pacing the corridor outside of the room of requirement.

"Maybe it's something to do with that potion he's been taking," Sirius suggested, wishing he'd managed to get more information out of Remus about what it was Snape had been brewing for him.

* * *

Remus looked out of the window for a long while after his friends had disappeared back down the tunnel towards the school. He cast a baleful glance over his shoulder at the torn, battered and filthy mattress. It didn't look comfortable at all, not like his soft and warm bed in the room of requirement.

Surely Dumbledore, McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey wouldn't be too harsh on him if he joined his friends in their room?

It might give his friends a bit of a fright, but surely they were smart enough to realise he wasn't dangerous?

The cold and miserable shack with its dirty mattress, or the room of requirement with its comfy bed?

It was no contest really, and Remus hurried down the tunnel towards Hogwarts, determined to spend the next few hours in a proper bed.

* * *

Remus paced outside of the room of requirement and watched as the door appeared. He jumped up onto his hind legs and used his front paw to pull down the handle. He nudged the door open and pushed his snout into the room. There was no sign of the other marauders or Lily and he guessed they were all safely tucked up in bed.

He entered the room fully and pushed the door closed once more. Then he made his way to the boys' bedchamber and opened that door in a similar manner. The sound of three sets of snores greeted his sensitive ears and he realised that his friends must have been really tired after their busy night. A twinge of guilt accompanied this thought, but he pushed it aside as he had so many times before when he'd noticed the exhaustion of his friends on the days following the full moon.

He quietly padded over to his bed and leaped up onto it. It was only after he'd landed that he realised that his bed wasn't empty after all. It seemed that Sirius had decided against using his own bed for the remainder of the night and had instead curled up in Remus's, with his nose buried in the pillow.

"What the…?" Sirius grunted as he fought off the weight of the nearly fully grown wolf. "Shit! James! Wake up!"

"What is it?" James called sleepily from the other side of the room.

"Moony!" Sirius squeaked as he scrambled back towards the headboard. "Shit, James, do something!"

"Turn into Padfoot, you berk!" Peter suggested, right before he turned into Wormtail.

"Great idea," James snorted. "Except there's no room for a bloody stag in here, so I'll be prey instead."

Remus sighed to himself as he pulled at the covers with his mouth and crawled beneath them. His friends would figure it out eventually, in the meantime he wanted some sleep. If only Sirius would stop fidgeting long enough for him to get some.

Finally Sirius seemed to realise that he wasn't in any danger and he turned back into himself. "Remus?" he whispered quietly.

Remus rolled his eyes, it wasn't like he could turn back into his human form at will in order to answer him.

"Blink if you can understand me," Sirius asked.

Remus blinked, that he could do.

"You can understand me? You're Remus?"

Remus blinked again.

"The potion let you keep your mind?" Sirius guessed.

Remus blinked again, adding an exaggerated yawn in the hope that Sirius would take the hint.

"The potion that Snivellus has been making for him?" James asked.

Remus turned to glare at him but it came across as more of a snarl, and he was surprised at how quickly James darted backwards. He resolved to apologise for scaring them in the morning, providing they let him get some sleep of course.

With that in mind he curled up beneath the covers and closed his eyes.

He felt the bed shift as Sirius crawled back under the covers as well and if he could have smiled contentedly, he would.

He listened to the sounds of James and Peter settling back down for the night and wished that he could drop off to sleep as quickly as they could.

Unfortunately, a whispering voice was keeping him from losing consciousness.

"You're so beautiful, Moony," said Sirius, and Remus felt a hand reaching out and stroking his back. "I've wanted to do this for so long, to feel your fur under my human fingers, to touch you."

Remus eased into Sirius's touch and he snuggled closer to him. He felt Sirius's arms pull him close and he knew that he'd do whatever it took to get the Wolfsbane potion back to their own world.

* * *

Remus woke the next morning when a sharp pain coursed through his body. He let out an involuntary scream that woke the other boys.

"Moony? Remus?" Sirius shouted as he watched the wolf's body stretch and contort itself into positions it looked like it should never be forced into.

The only transformation Sirius had seen before was an unexpected one just after they'd arrived in another world. Remus had said that one was worse because his body had not had time to prepare for it, but this one didn't seem that much different from what he'd witnessed before. Sirius wondered if Remus had lied in order to spare his feelings and whether it was always this bad, this painful, this horrifying.

"Remus?" he cried as he watched his friend writhe in pain. The unfamiliar feeling of helplessness was not one that he liked, and not one that he ever wanted to experience again.

"You can't help him," James said as he pulled Sirius back. "Not yet."

"It's taking too long," Sirius yelled as he tried to break free of James's grasp. It hadn't taken this long last time, had it? He couldn't remember for sure, he'd been so exhausted after keeping Moony under control on his own all night, he'd pretty much collapsed unconscious onto the ground when the transformation back had begun.

"No it isn't," Peter assured him. "It just seems like a long time because you can't do anything about it."

"And because you love him," James added. "Maybe you should wait in the other room?"

"No." Sirius shook his head determinedly. "If he can go through this every month, I can watch it now."

"He wouldn't want you to watch it," James pointed out.

"Then he wouldn't have come back here this morning."

"I don't think he'd thought that far ahead," James reasoned. "Or he planned on waking up earlier and changing in the bathroom or something."

"That sounds more like it," Peter agreed.

"I think it's nearly over." Sirius felt James loosen his grip on his arms and he approached the bed once more. Thankfully Remus had at last stopped thrashing about on the mattress and was now laying still. His body was almost completely back to normal, except for the light covering of fur that was retracting back into his skin, even as he watched.

"Remus?" Sirius whispered. He took hold of the other boy's hand and squeezed it lightly.

"You un-set the alarm, didn't you?" Remus accused in a weak voice.

"Er…yeah," Sirius looked at the small old-fashioned alarm clock that was gracing Remus's bedside table. "I didn't see the point of having it go off at the crack of dawn."

"I set it for ten minutes before the moon was due to set," Remus explained as he slowly and gingerly sat up.

"You might have mentioned that yesterday," Sirius muttered.

"Oops."

"And not telling me about what the potion did, is that another oops?" Sirius asked.

"Not exactly," Remus admitted, before explaining his reasons for holding back from his friends.

"We have to take it back with us," Sirius said. "I've never seen you look so good after a full moon."

"I look okay?" Remus asked cautiously.

"You're still pale," James told him. "Really pale. How do you feel?"

"I ache a bit…a lot…and I'm tired."

"Well, that's probably from running around all night," Sirius pointed out. "You look great, really!"

"Well of course you'd say that," Remus muttered. "Peter, an honest opinion, if you don't mind?"

Peter looked at Remus, then at Sirius, then back to Remus again. "You look good," Peter told him much to Sirius's delight, although Remus was still doubtful.

"See, I told you so!" Sirius crowed. "Now what can we do to help you recover fully?"

"I should go and see Madam Pomfrey and let her know the potion worked, and that I'm not in the shack. Maybe get some of her restorative potions as well."

"I'll go," Peter said and he hurried out of the door.

"Thanks!" Remus called after him. "Now I think I'm going to go back to sleep for a while. It's been a long night…and this time I remember it…every single wonderful moment."

He snuggled back under the covers and smiled up at Sirius. "Thank you Padfoot."

"What for?" Sirius asked with a frown of mild confusion.

"For everything." Remus yawned. "And for helping me to get the potion back to our world."

"We haven't managed it yet."

"We will," Remus replied and he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep once more.

* * *

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this, despite it being far more drama than humour in this chapter.


	7. The Boy Who Lived

**The Boy Who Lived**

Lily risked a glance behind her and breathed a sigh of relief. There was thankfully no sign of James Potter trailing after her. She cast an annoyed glare at the notice board in the Entrance Hall, where a new sheet of parchment informed students of the third year and above that the first Hogsmeade weekend had been set for the last day of October. Lily was still hopeful that they might be home by that date, but there was no way of telling for sure. James on the other hand seemed resigned to the idea that they would sticking around for a while; he therefore saw no point in breaking with the tradition he'd begun at the end of the fourth year and had invited her to Hogsmeade yet again.

Unfortunately for her, the boy couldn't seem to comprehend the meaning of the word 'no' and had launched into an obviously pre-rehearsed speech about how the two of them just had to go to Hogsmeade together, or else he'd be on his own there, which would simply never do.

Sirius had offered to let James tag along with himself and Remus, giving Lily the opportunity to duck out of the room whilst the delusional and still hopeful James was distracted.

She stepped outside into the cool autumn air and took a moment to get her breath back. The crisp afternoon was already becoming a rather chilly evening, but Lily was reluctant to go back to her room just yet. With a bit of luck James would soon be distracted by some prank or another and he'd forget about Hogsmeade. She couldn't believe that she was actually hoping he'd now be spending his time plotting mischief…it was just another sign of her desperation.

Without thinking too much about where she was going, Lily wandered through the grounds, heading down towards the lake, enjoying the peace and quiet. She could hear the distant sounds of shouting and followed the same until she reached the edge of the Quidditch pitch. High above the ground, the Gryffindor team was being put through its paces by their captain.

Oliver was hovering on his broom in the middle of the pitch, presently yelling at the beaters to stop larking around and practice properly. Lily raised her hand to her shield her eyes from the dying sun and looked at the beaters in question. The Weasley twins…why was she not surprised that the new best friends of James and Sirius were the obvious troublemakers on the team?

"Hey! Wood! Looks like your girlfriend's come to watch!" one of the twins yelled. Lily felt herself flushing with embarrassment as the attention of not only Oliver, but the rest of the team too, was suddenly centred on her.

She waved shyly and vaguely in Oliver's direction, wondering if it might be better to just back out of the pitch and make a quick escape.

"Hold on, Lily!" Oliver called out as she took a small step back the way she'd come.

"Pleeeease don't gooooo!" the twins chorused, much to the hilarity of the rest of the team and the annoyance of the captain.

"I didn't mean to interrupt your practice," Lily apologised as Oliver landed a few feet away from her. "I was just wandering round and thought I'd…I'm starting to babble, aren't I?"

"Just a bit," Oliver laughed. "We're about done anyway though. I'm glad you stopped by; I've been wanting to speak to you, but you never seem to be in the common room."

"We have our own common room," Lily explained. "Though it might be nice to see the proper Gryffindor one again."

"You've seen it before?" Oliver asked curiously and Lily cursed herself for her slip of the tongue.

"I meant I'd seen a picture of it from a long time ago," she amended, her explanation sounding lame, even to her own ears.

"Well, I'm heading back there soon if you want to walk with me?"

"Okay," Lily smiled and let Oliver lead the way. A few minutes of awkward silence passed before Lily remembered what Oliver had said about wanting to speak to her. "You said you wanted to speak to me?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah…erm…I didn't know if you'd seen the notice about the Hogsmeade weekend at the end of the month."

Lily nodded that she had.

"So…er…I was wondering if maybe you'd be going?"

"Probably. I need to check with Professor McGonagall about my permission slip though."

"You don't have a permission slip?" Oliver looked disappointed.

"It's complicated," Lily hedged.

"Okay." Oliver looked even more disappointed, but didn't press her any further on the matter.

_You're blowing it again, Evans_, Lily scolded herself. "The slip is for my old school," she finally said when inspiration hit her. "We had a similar system there and it wasn't updated for Hogwarts."

"I'm sure McGonagall will let you go into the village," Oliver assured her. "Especially since you're a prefect." He pointed to the badge on her robes.

Lily nodded, hoping that he was right. "So, you'll be going into Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah. I want to go get the new book on Quidditch tactics, if the village shop has it in stock."

"That sounds interesting," Lily commented politely.

"Liar," Oliver teased her with a grin.

Lily laughed and raised her hands in surrender. "You caught me. I like to watch the game, but all the tactics and stuff…well it just goes right over my head." She swept her hand over her head to demonstrate and shook her head.

"Don't feel too bad, it goes over the heads of most people, including several members of the Gryffindor team, unfortunately."

Lily was about to reply when the sound of running feet and a voice calling for Oliver drew them both to a halt.

"Hi, Harry," Oliver greeted the younger boy. "You forget something?"

"No," Harry panted. "But you did." The younger boy held out his hand to reveal the Quidditch captain's badge.

"Must have come off my robes when that last bludger got a bit too close," Oliver commented as he took the badge back and pinned it to his robes once more. "Thanks."

Lily smiled politely at the younger boy who she guessed was a third or fourth year. She knew she was being rude by not introducing herself, but she was at a complete loss for words, and the only thought flitting through her mind was that the boy standing before her was almost the exact double of James Potter…only a few years younger.

"Have you met the famous Harry Potter?" Oliver asked once he realised that Lily was staring so hard at the boy he was becoming rather red with embarrassment.

"Potter?" Lily echoed quietly.

"Youngest seeker on a house team in a hundred years," Oliver exclaimed excitedly. "You _must _have heard of him…"

"Sorry." Lily shook her head and pulled herself together. "Pleased to meet you, Harry."

She stuck out her hand and shook the hand of the rather surprised looking Harry. It was only after she'd fully collected herself together that she realised the boy had been staring at her just as much as she'd been staring at him.

"You too…er…" Harry faltered and looked at her questioningly.

"Lily," Oliver supplied.

At this Harry looked even more startled than he had before.

"Is something wrong?" Lily asked.

Harry shook his head and smiled again. "That was my mother's name," he finally said. "And…I know this sounds really strange, but…well, you look just like her."

"I guess I have one of those faces," Lily smiled.

"A very pretty one," Oliver supplied with a grin.

Lily felt herself flushing again.

"I'd better head back to the common room," Harry said, looking as embarrassed as she was. "I've still got Snape's Potions essay to finish and its due tomorrow."

Harry took off towards Gryffindor Tower, leaving Lily alone with Oliver once more.

"Third years," Oliver commented. "They haven't quite realised all the benefits of a Hogsmeade weekend yet."

"And what would those be?" Lily asked with a flirtatious smile.

"The chance to spend time in the company of pretty girls, without Filch popping up," Oliver grinned back. "So, would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?"

Oliver looked back at her, the grin now more of a nervous smile. Lily answered the smile with one of her own. "I'd love to," she replied.

The nervous smile disappeared and the grin returned as Oliver breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief.

They resumed their steady walk back to the castle, chatting about trivial nonsense until they reached the Entrance Hall. At that point Oliver turned to her with a curious expression on his face. "By the way, that was really nice how you pretended not to know Harry. He hates being famous, except for being the youngest player ever on the house team of course."

"But I…" Lily began, but she was brought up short by the quick kiss to the cheek from the boy beside her. Then Oliver had vanished up the stairs, leaving Lily standing in the Entrance Hall, one hand raised to her cheek and a dozen questions running through her head. Her chance to see the modern Gryffindor common room was forgotten about completely.

* * *

"Potter, Black, can you two clear off so I can speak to Remus?" Lily asked the moment she walked into their private common room.

"No," Sirius replied from where he was stretched out in front of the fireplace, contemplating numerous chocolate frog cards. "Here's another new one!" he crowed as he waved a card in front of James's face. "We're going to make a fortune when we get back with all these rare and not yet published cards."

"I really need to talk to Remus," Lily said in the sweetest tone she could muster.

"We're not stopping you," James pointed out as he continued to rifle through his own stack of cards.

"They're figuring out how to make their first million," Remus explained. "It keeps them out of mischief."

"Do they really think Dumbledore will let them take stuff back with them?" Lily asked.

"I think they're hoping that trivial stuff like those won't be noticed."

"But some of the information on the cards will be about the future."

"A possible future," Remus corrected. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Not in here," Lily said, pointing to the door to the small library.

"Peter's in there," Remus said, steering her instead towards her bedchamber. "And you really don't want to see the state of our room. I don't think the house elves have realised they have extra rooms to clean yet."

"Spare me the details," Lily muttered as she followed Remus into her room, relieved that she'd remembered to make her bed that morning and that all of her own things were neatly stored away.

"So, what's bothering you?" Remus asked as he perched on the end of the bed and leaned back against one of the bedposts.

"There's this boy here at Hogwarts," Lily began with a sigh and she stretched out on her stomach across the bed.

"And you're asking _me_ for dating advice?" Remus laughed. "This wouldn't be a certain handsome Quidditch captain, would it?"

"You think Oliver's handsome?" Lily asked with a smirk.

"Yeah," Remus replied with a flush. "But don't tell Sirius I said so."

"My lips are sealed." Lily made a locking motion in front of her lips and nodded seriously. "But I wasn't talking about him."

"Got your eye on someone else as well?" Remus asked with a grin.

"No, it's not like that."

"So you don't fancy him? James will be _very _relieved to hear it."

"You're fishing for information," Lily accused. "Don't try to deny it either, I've known you too long and even if your mates can't pick up on it, I can."

"Guilty as charged," Remus nodded. "So dish the dirt."

"Oliver asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him," Lily confessed.

"And?"

"And what?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "And what did you say?"

"I said yes," Lily replied with a grin.

"You know we aren't staying here," Remus reminded her.

"I can handle this," Lily said with a shrug that wasn't entirely easy. "I didn't want to ask you about Oliver anyway. It's this other boy, who's on the team with him…"

"Harry, right?"

"You know about him?" Lily shot up into a sitting position and glared accusingly at Remus.

"Er…"

"He's James's son, isn't he?"

"Yes." Remus's reply was barely more than a whisper and he was no longer meeting her eyes.

"He said I looked like his mother," Lily continued.

"Hmm?"

"You're being deliberately evasive," Lily accused.

"Actually, I'm trying to avoid saying anything at all," Remus confessed.

"I take it that you weren't planning on telling me that in this particular world my double was another brainless ninny?"

"Huh?"

"Well she must have been to be marrying antler-boy through there," Lily hissed. "Does he know?"

"James?"

"No, the Minister for Magic," Lily sarcastically replied. "Of course, James!"

"Not unless he's started cracking open a book for once in his life."

"And Sirius and Peter?"

"Sirius knows."

"And he hasn't told James?"

Remus shook his head. "We thought it best not to tell him."

"Why not?" Lily asked, curiosity etched on her face.

"How much do you know about Harry?" Remus asked instead of answering her question.

"Just that he looks like James and says I look like his mother," Lily replied. "Oh, and that he's famous for being the youngest Quidditch player on the house team and something else."

"You don't know what the 'something else' is, do you?" Remus asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.

Lily frowned slightly as she shook her head.

Remus rubbed nervously at the back of his neck and chewed on his lower lip. "I guess you'll find out sooner or later…"

"Find out what?" Lily asked, now extremely curious and more than a little worried by Remus's demeanour.

"Harry's an orphan," Remus finally blurted out, his hand reaching to grip Lily's in a gesture of comfort and friendship.

"But he can't be more than fourteen," Lily whispered.

"He's a third year," Remus confirmed. "He was orphaned when he was just a baby. It was during the war."

"There's more isn't there?" Lily guessed.

Remus nodded. "Did you see the scar?"

"The one on his forehead?"

"Yeah. Well, apparently he got that the night you and James were murdered by Voldemort. Harry got it when he survived the killing curse that was directed at him."

"What?" Lily's voice was barely more than a whisper.

"That's why he's famous," Remus explained. "He's the boy who lived."

"Are you going to tell me the rest of the story too?" Lily asked quietly.

"I'll tell you what I know," Remus agreed. "But on one condition."

"Which is?"

"You don't give Sirius a hard time over this…he's having a bad enough time dealing with it as it is."

"Yeah, right," Lily muttered. "He's looking real traumatised today."

"He's managing during the daytime," Remus said. "But he's having more nightmares now than he's had since things were bad with his family back in fifth year."

Lily was quiet a moment whilst she digested this new information about the arrogant and opinionated Sirius Black. "I'll keep my mouth shut."

Remus nodded and proceeded to fill her in on the rest of the story, at least as he knew it, of the events of the first war.

"You've really done your research on this, haven't you?" Lily asked when Remus had finished speaking.

"It could be important when we get back home."

"So you've no qualms about taking information about the future back with you?"

"If you found out three of your best friends were dead and the other was responsible for one of those, wouldn't you try to find out everything you could to change it?"

Lily nodded. "So, you still trust Sirius? Even knowing all this?"

"I'd trust him with my life," Remus answered immediately. "Now, do I need to remind you about your promise?"

Lily shook her head. "I won't say anything to upset him, not about this anyway."

"Thanks," Remus said and he pulled Lily, who was shaking slightly after all the revelations, into a hug.

Naturally that was the moment that Sirius and James decided to stick their heads round the door to see what was happening.

"Something you want to tell me, Moony?" Sirius asked with a smirk.

"You've caught me out," Remus replied with a grin. "Lily and I are having an affair."

"No, you're not."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because you're a terrible liar."

"Not to mention too loud to be carrying on in the next room without anyone noticing," James added. "Not without silencing charms anyway."

"Git!" Remus said as he grabbed a pillow and threw it at James. Within minutes there were two burst pillows and four laughing sixth years picking the small white feathers off of their clothes and out of their hair.

All thoughts of the war, the deaths and the boy who lived were temporarily banished by the carefree laughter that may have sounded ever so slightly forced…but only to the most skilled of ears.


	8. How Can You Tell?

How Can You Tell?

"Isn't this great?" Sirius exclaimed as Remus calmly perused the list of items that Argus Filch had banned from Hogwarts.

"What's so great about it?" Remus finally asked as he handed the list back to Sirius who was now making notations on the parchment.

"It's like he's given us a shopping list of all the best stuff," Sirius explained. "I recognise some of the items but the newer stuff I'd never have thought of."

"I don't think Filch gave you the list so that you could go and buy the stuff," Remus pointed out with a smile. "He'll be checking pockets when you get back."

"So, we'll come back through the Shrieking Shack."

"Where've you got the money to buy all this stuff anyway?"

"Traded a couple of chocolate frog cards that were in the pocket of my robes when we came here. Turned out one of them is pretty rare now. And Prongs has been charging for lessons in hexing for first and second years."

"He's what?" Remus shook his head. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Have fun, and try to stay out of trouble."

Sirius looked up from his list in surprise. "Aren't you coming with us?"

"No," Remus shook his head. "I wanted to speak to the other me about some stuff."

"Oh, yeah?" Sirius queried.

"Werewolf stuff," Remus whispered, cautious of any eavesdroppers in their vicinity.

"Can't you do that later?"

"Not really. I'll see you all when you get back."

"Are you sure I can't persuade you?" Sirius asked with a flirtatious wink.

Remus shook his head and grinned. "If I don't see you buying the stuff, I can always pretend that I don't know you have it."

"I'll be back later," Sirius promised. He then planted a quick kiss on Remus's lips before hurrying to catch up with the rather impatient Prongs.

* * *

"She left about five minutes ago, _with him_," James muttered as he took off at a brisk pace towards Hogsmeade.

"I'm not spending all day stalking Evans," Sirius called after his best friend, not troubling to hurry to keep up with him.

"But she's on a date!"

"She's been on dates before, but I don't recall them ever requiring us to trail after her like this."

"But she's dating the Quidditch Captain!" James said for the umpteenth time.

Sirius rolled his eyes and swore under his breath. It was just ridiculous the lengths James seemed to be prepared to go to, in order to win the girl of his dreams. "I thought we were meeting Fred and George?"

"We are, but we need to keep an eye on Lily too. It's for her own good."

"Fred said that he'd let us know what the really bad stuff on Filch's list is so that we can stock up."

"Great!" James nodded enthusiastically. "That'll save loads of time."

Sirius groaned quietly, it was going to be a long morning.

* * *

Remus had been trying, for a couple of weeks, to find the time to speak with Professor Lupin alone. Unfortunately he'd not found the time until today, or more to the point, he'd not managed to shake Sirius off long enough to have a chat with his older self alone.

But today he'd finally succeeded. Sirius was on his way to Hogsmeade, the lure of a new bag of tricks from Zonko's was too great a temptation, and Remus was going to make the most of his opportunity.

It was just pure bad luck that when he arrived at the professor's office, it was to find that he wasn't alone. Instead he was in the company of Harry Potter.

"Ah, Remus, do come in." Professor Lupin greeted him with a smile. "Have you met Harry?"

"No," Remus said with a smile at the younger boy. He'd thought Harry looked like James from a distance, close up the resemblance was even more startling. Behind the glasses, Remus could see the familiar green eyes of Lily Evans as well.

"Quite a resemblance," Professor Lupin said with a grin.

Harry frowned slightly, clearly confused.

"Remus here, is my nephew," Professor Lupin explained. "They say there's a resemblance anyway."

Remus nodded, wondering if Harry was buying the lie that his older self was spinning in order to explain his comment. The younger boy didn't question the comment, and merely nodded a greeting.

"I should get going," Harry mumbled.

"You sure you don't want to stay?" Professor Lupin asked kindly.

"No, that's okay," Harry replied. "I don't want to intrude on family stuff or anything."

"If you're sure?"

"My friends will be coming back from Hogsmeade soon anyway."

Remus could tell it was a lie. Once the students went into Hogsmeade, they never returned right away, and often made a day of it. But neither he nor Professor Lupin called him on the lie and Harry had soon disappeared out the door.

"He doesn't know that I knew his parents," Professor Lupin explained. "Or that I was once the best friend of the man who was responsible for their deaths."

"How much does he know?"

"Very little. He's been raised by Lily's muggle sister; he knew nothing about our world until he received his Hogwarts invitation. He knows that Black was a supporter of Voldemort, and how much danger he's in until he's caught. But nothing else…at least that I know about."

"Can I ask you something?" Remus asked quietly.

"Of course." Professor Lupin looked back at him intently and Remus wondered how to ask what he wanted to.

It had been bothering him ever since he'd seen the posters of Sirius, and the more he thought about it, the less sense it made.

"Why did Sirius join Voldemort?" he finally asked.

Professor Lupin was quiet for what seemed like minutes, but was probably only seconds. "I don't know," he finally admitted.

"Didn't you visit him in Azkaban? Didn't you go and ask him?"

"No. It can't be a mistake."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do," Professor Lupin whispered, his gaze fixed on a point somewhere above Remus's left shoulder. "Dumbledore knew there was a traitor close to James and Lily, someone who was feeding information to Voldemort. It was the only way he could have been tracking them so easily."

"That doesn't mean it had to be Sirius," Remus interrupted.

"Let me finish," Professor Lupin raised his hand calmly. "They decided to perform the Fidelius Charm and were under the protection of that charm when they died. Their Secret Keeper is the one who betrayed them."

"James would have chosen Sirius," Remus stated calmly, a cold feeling creeping into his veins.

"He'd have trusted no other with the lives of his wife and son."

"Were there no signs in Sirius…anything that would have shown where his true loyalties were?"

"Of course not," Professor Lupin snapped. "We trusted him completely, and James and Lily and poor Peter paid for our mistake with their lives."

"I just can't imagine Sirius joining Voldemort," Remus sighed. He wandered over to the window and looked out towards the lake. "I just can't picture him ever doing something like that."

"You can't?" Professor Lupin asked tiredly. "Your own Sirius has never betrayed you? Not once? Not ever?"

Remus knew exactly what the professor was hinting at, it was clear that the one event at Hogwarts he would cheerfully forget had happened in this world too. "That was different," he whispered.

"Was it?" Professor Lupin asked. "Your friends were trusted with your secret. Sirius Black was trusted with your greatest secret and he betrayed you. He sent another student to the Shrieking Shack on the night of the full moon. Did you ask your Sirius why?"

Remus shook his head. He knew that Sirius was sorry for what he'd done, and he'd forgiven him long ago, but he'd never once asked him why he'd done it. He'd hated those first few weeks after the incident, he and Sirius had barely spoken, and he'd made the decision to forgive him, no questions asked, rather than lose his best friend.

"Did you ask?" Remus turned back to Professor Lupin curiously.

"No." Professor Lupin shook his head sadly. "But whilst I may have forgiven him, I never forgot his betrayal. I pushed it to the back of my mind and never thought of it again…not until his next, and last betrayal anyway."

"Were there any other clues you can think of?" Remus asked. "Things you should have seen but only thought of later?"

"None that I can recall."

"So, how can I tell if our Sirius is going to betray us again?"

"You can't."

Remus turned to look back out of the window; he was far from happy with the way the conversation had gone. Realistically, he'd not expected the discussion to go that well, but he'd still hoped for an answer that would ease his worries.

"Your world is different from this one," Professor Lupin said softly.

"Not by much."

"Oh? So, I just imagined catching sight of you and young Sirius kissing down near the lake the other night?"

Remus blushed and looked down at the lake in question.

"I don't recall our Sirius ever shoving his tongue down my throat…except for that one time when Peter dared him, and neither of us particularly liked the experience."

Remus felt his lips twitching as a smile tried to escape.

"My point is, your world isn't the same as this one. Not when it comes to Sirius Black. Just because I failed my friends…it doesn't mean you will."

Remus nodded silently, his eyes not leaving the lake. He wouldn't fail. He couldn't fail.

* * *

Peter looked around the room of requirement with annoyance. There was no sign of any of his friends and no sign of so much as a note to tell him where they'd all disappeared to.

He looked at the clock above the fireplace and realised that he'd overslept and the others were probably already in Hogsmeade. He grumbled to himself as he made his way to the bathroom. It wasn't that he expected Sirius to wake him up, the lazy git had to be practically forced out of bed himself. James would have been too busy making sure that he didn't lose sight of Lily. But he would have expected Remus to wake him before they left.

He wondered if the Peter Pettigrew of the world they were now in had ever been forgotten by his friends.

He was still muttering to himself when he returned to their common room and spotted the Marauders' Map lying, unactivated on the table.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he stated firmly, tapping the map as he spoke. He quickly scanned the map to see if any of the other marauders were still in the grounds. Then he spotted something that made his heart lurch for a moment before speeding up rapidly.

"It can't be," he whispered, even though he knew that the map never malfunctioned. The Marauders' Map was the brainchild of Sirius Black, and researched down to the very last detail by Remus Lupin. It had taken them nearly a year to complete and it was never wrong.

Which meant that the older Peter Pettigrew was in Hogwarts too…to be precise he was in the third year boys' dormitory in Gryffindor Tower.

Then he realised that he must be looking at his own son. It was the best explanation after all. Surely if his older self was here at the school, he'd have been warned, just like Remus had been.

His son.

At Hogwarts, just down the corridor and up the stairs of the tower.

Peter was on his feet and hurrying to Gryffindor Tower before giving it any more thought. He didn't need to wait long for someone to give him the current password, and he felt grateful for all the attention they'd been getting since their arrival. The quintet always sat at the Gryffindor table and everyone knew who they were.

The dormitory was pretty much as he remembered it. The same thick hangings on the beds, the same views from the windows and the same messy clutter that seemed to appear anywhere where teenage boys stayed.

The only thing puzzling Peter was the emptiness of the room. He guessed he must have missed the other Peter and looked around the room curiously. He wondered which bed was his and looked at the nightstands for clues.

The first one contained nothing more than a couple of plants and a photo of the boy's parents. He didn't recognise them and moved onto the next one.

The photograph on the second nightstand had been taken years ago and it was clearly well worn. It wasn't the age of the photo that caught his attention though, it was the subjects. Smiling back at him were James Potter and Lily Evans. They were a little older, perhaps a year or two after leaving school, and clearly in love – Peter took a moment to get accustomed to that idea – but it was definitely them.

There was only one reason why a student would have a picture of James and Lily, that student must be their son. James and Lily had a son who was at school with his own son. He grinned at the idea of the next generation of marauders before turning to the next bed.

The third nightstand also contained photos of the student's parents, but again Peter was disappointed that he wasn't present in any of the pictures.

The fourth was similarly disappointing, and although the fifth and final nightstand contained no photos, it did contain numerous schoolbooks, all marked as belonging to Ron Weasley, the younger brother of the Weasley twins.

Peter pulled the map out of his pocket again and checked the room. This time there were two Peter Pettigrews showing as being in the room.

"Peter?" Peter called quietly. "You under an invisibility cloak or something?"

No answer came.

Then he spotted, out of the corner of his eye, the telltale movement of a small animal.

His son couldn't be an animagus too, could he? And if he was, what were the chances of him taking the same form as his father?

He knew then that he was looking at himself.

He wondered what he was doing there, was he searching for Sirius Black?

Then he heard the sound of footsteps outside and he ducked out of the room before he was caught snooping.

Peter hadn't been wasting his time since arriving in this new world. He'd been researching the results of the Quidditch League, just on the off chance that once they got home the information would be useful. Now he decided he wanted to do a different kind of research…he wanted to know what had happened in the past.

* * *

"Does she look like she's enjoying herself?" James asked, unable to bring himself to look across the road to where Lily and Oliver were lingering outside of The Three Broomsticks.

"She's having more fun than I am," Sirius muttered, trying to drag James towards where the twins were waiting down the road. "Just leave her be."

"Would you leave them be if it was Moony dating another bloke?"

"This isn't about me and Moony."

"You'd be jealous – hell, you were jealous!"

"Can I ask you something?" Sirius asked, though he didn't bother waiting for an answer. "What is it about Lily? Why her?"

"Why Remus?" James countered. "How could you tell he was the one?"

Sirius frowned slightly and shrugged. "He just is."

"So's Lily."

"But she can't stand you," Sirius pointed out. "You spent years teasing her, hexing her and her friends, mocking her…"

"You think I don't know this?"

"I'm just saying, maybe you've done too much damage to ever have a chance with her…"

"It's not like you haven't done worse to Remus," James scowled. "He forgave you, we all did."

"Maybe he shouldn't have," Sirius mused sadly. "It'll only make it even worse for him when I turn evil."

"You make it sound like it's inevitable."

"Perhaps it is."

"I refuse to believe we can't change things," James insisted, casting a last, longing glance back at Lily who was laughing at something Oliver was saying.

Sirius didn't answer and hurried to catch up with the twins. He didn't trust himself not to tell James what he knew about the war, and knew that if he didn't end the conversation now he'd be tempted to do just that.

Remus had confided in him that Lily now knew about her marriage to James and had met their son. James and Peter were the only ones still in the dark, and whilst he had no desire to tell Peter that his double had murdered him, the secrets he was keeping from Prongs were starting to weigh heavily on his mind.

He needed to talk to Remus. He needed his advice, his reassurance…his love.

Then he saw something in the distance, something strangely familiar although he'd never actually seen it before.

"Padfoot? What is it?" James asked.

"On the hill," Sirius whispered.

James turned to look at where Sirius's gaze was fixed. "Looks like a dog."

"It's me."

"You can't possibly tell that from this distance."

"I can tell," Sirius whispered before he took off at a run. As soon as he was out of sight of the village he transformed into his animagus form and bounded after the dog that he was sure was his older self.

The dog either heard or sensed his approach and was running away well before Padfoot reached it. But Sirius knew he had youth and determination on his side and he kept up the chase as they ran into the forest.

There was no way he was letting the other animal out of his sight.

In Sirius's mind, capturing his double would prove his own loyalty. Capturing his double would make everything all right again. He refused to give thought to the possibility that his double would know the forest as well as, if not better than himself. He wouldn't accept defeat, not even from his older self.

* * *

A/N: Just a note about the category of this fic. I initially had it listed as humour/drama. I have made the decision to remove it from the humour category as it is clear in my mind that it is becoming far more of a drama instead of being evenly balanced between the two. Although there will be a few more light-hearted moments in the story, I don't feel that there are enough to justify the humour category.

Secondly, if you are a puppy shipper who isn't reading any of my other stories you won't have seen my notices about the new forum for the puppy shippers. It is accessed through my profile page and everyone is welcome to join in. So do stop by and say hello.


	9. Madness

Madness

Potter had taken his stalking to new levels of annoyance, and Lily was reaching the very end of her patience…not that she'd had that much of it to begin with.

It seemed that every time she turned round, there he was…watching her, following her, and glaring at her date. Even Oliver had noticed their constant shadow. He hadn't said anything, but Lily had caught him glancing behind them towards James several times during the morning.

But, with a great deal of willpower, it was possible to almost forget that Potter was there. At least it was when he wasn't barrelling down the street towards her, arms flailing and a look of panic on his face.

"Evans!" he yelled as he hurtled towards her.

Lily pretended not to have heard and tried to steer Oliver into the post office. Unfortunately her date was a gentleman, and wouldn't let her escape.

"Evans, you've got to help me," James panted as he gripped his side and struggled for breath. "It's Padfoot, he's…" He waved his arm vaguely in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

"He's your friend, you go fetch him out of the forest," Lily replied impatiently. James grabbed her arm and pulled her away from Oliver.

"You don't understand," James gasped. "He's gone after him. You know who I mean…_himself_."

"I very much doubt that he'll find him in the forest," Lily muttered. "Much as I hate to admit it, he's too smart to be hanging around so close to the school."

"He may be smart, but he's also reckless and impulsive. You've got to help me stop him. He'll get himself killed."

"And what _exactly_ do you expect me to do?" Lily asked impatiently. "I'm not going running through the forest with you and your nutcase mates, so forget it."

"I need you to go back to the school and tell Moony and Wormtail," James asked. "I'll go after him and try to stop him from doing anything stupid. Wormtail can track us and…"

"Fine, whatever," Lily muttered. Anything to get shot of him.

Then James was gone, disappearing around the back of a building. He re-appeared momentarily in his animagus form and sped towards the forest. Lily returned to Oliver's side and suggested they head back to Hogwarts.

"Was that a stag?" Oliver asked, pointing towards the forest.

"Looks like it," Lily replied, already walking back up towards the school.

"Never seen one so close to Hogsmeade before."

"Fancy that," Lily muttered under her breath.

"I hope it doesn't get too near the train tracks."

"Oh, don't tempt me," Lily whispered, but a little too loudly. Oliver clearly heard her and looked at her in astonishment.

"You didn't strike me as someone who doesn't like animals," he commented, disappointment evident in his voice.

"I do like animals," Lily sighed. "But…oh, hell, I can't explain. I wouldn't even know where to start."

"You do like to be a mystery, don't you?"

Lily grimaced. "That's me, the mysterious Lily Evans."

"Mystery is all well and good, but after a while it just seems like you're shutting me out."

Lily sighed and looked away. What could she say to that? She was shutting him out, and even though she had a good reason for it, she knew her reasoning was becoming weaker, even as it became harder and harder to keep her own counsel.

"Lovers' tiff?" a teasing voice asked from behind them. Lily turned to see the Weasley twins walking close behind them. She restrained herself from making a suitably sarcastic comment and settled for making an obscene gesture towards them.

"And she seems like such a nice girl," Fred commented to George, shaking his head in disappointment.

"Must be her upbringing," George replied sadly. "I guess where she comes from, they don't teach them manners."

Lily glared at the twins, noting the emphasis on George's comment about where she had come from. She knew that the marauders had been spending a lot of time with the twins, but it was only now that she realised that they'd confided more than she knew in them.

"Got something else to say?" Oliver asked the twins, clearly having caught the undertone as well. By now the quartet of students had come to a complete halt.

"You haven't told him?" George asked Lily.

"I can't believe those idiots told you," Lily replied with a snort of contempt.

"Told them what?" Oliver interrupted.

"Damn," Lily mumbled under her breath.

"They didn't tell us everything," Fred explained. "Some of it we figured out for ourselves."

"Like the animagus thing," George continued. "And we weren't sure about that until Prongs took off just now."

"One minute a boy…" Fred grinned. "Then the next, a stag."

George grinned admiringly. "Bloody brilliant!"

"Padfoot's that big black dog, right?" Fred asked. "What about Wormtail and Moony? What animals are they?"

"Damn," Lily said, a little louder this time.

"Lily?" Oliver asked quietly.

Lily sighed and looked across at Oliver. "I'll explain on the way," she offered as they began walking back to the castle again.

-o-xXx-o-

James sped through the forest as Prongs, the trail of the two Padfoots easy enough for him to follow.

He wasn't surprised to see how far the two dogs had disappeared in the trees and hoped that the trail didn't go cold before he caught up with them.

Finally he heard the sound of a bark, coming from only a short distance ahead of him. Then a sound that was barely human echoed through the trees and he stumbled forward, losing his footing on the damp leaves.

He fell down the slope as Prongs, transforming back into his human form as his fall ended.

He tried to clamber to his feet, but the pain in his right leg was too much to bear. He looked at the offending appendage and knew from not only the pain, but also the odd angle of the limb that he'd broken it.

"Sirius!" he yelled, hoping that his friend was still near enough to hear him.

-o-xXx-o-

Sirius, still in his animagus form, looked down at the older version of himself. The large black dog had now become a man and Sirius felt bile rise in his throat at what he saw.

The former prisoner of Azkaban laughed as he looked up at Sirius. The sound contained no humour at all and Sirius wondered whether it was prison that had unhinged him or whether it was simply the insanity that ran rampant through the Black family.

Sirius wanted to shout, to scream and rage at the man trapped underneath his paws, but the form he was in prevented him from doing so. He growled low and deep, turning back into his human form whilst continuing the menacing noise.

He wasn't sure what reaction to expect from the older version of himself. Several scenarios had run briefly through his mind, none of them including laughing even more wildly than before.

"A reminder of my misspent youth!" the older Sirius cackled.

"Sirius!"

"Prongs?" said the two Sirius's, both looking towards the trees in the direction the call had come from.

"Don't you call him that!" Sirius yelled. He grabbed hold of the other Sirius's shirt and yanked him towards him, then pushing him back into the ground harshly. "You've no right to call him that, you murdering bastard!"

"Have you both come to pass judgement on me?"

"You killed them!" Sirius screamed. "You fucking killed them! Why? What did the Dark Lord offer you? Why did you do it? They were your best friends." Sirius's voice cracked and he relaxed his grip on the other man. "They were your best friends."

"Padfoot!" James called again. "If you can hear me, I need your help. I think my leg's broken."

Sirius looked down at his other self. He pulled out his wand and trained it on his captive's face. Unfortunately his hand was shaking so badly he fumbled the binding spell. Prongs meanwhile, continued to yell for help, until eventually Sirius knew he had no option but to try to take his other self with him.

"You want to see Prongs?" he hissed. "Then hand over your wand and don't try to escape."

"A wand? You think they let me keep my wand in Azkaban?"

Sirius scowled as his older self gave a chillingly familiar barking laugh. "Don't try anything stupid!" he warned.

-o-xXx-o-

"So, you're from another time?" Oliver asked as they hurried into the castle.

"A different dimension," Lily corrected him. "But it seems like we've just travelled into the future because things are so similar."

"Except one of your best friends is a murderer," Fred pointed out.

"Sirius Black is _not_ one of my best friends," Lily snapped. "I only put up with him most of the time because of Remus."

"Speaking of which…" George pointed down the corridor, and Lily saw the boy in question walking towards them.

"Remus!" Lily called. "Your boyfriend's gone chasing after himself in the Forbidden Forest."

"And Prongs has gone chasing after him," George added. "They're both in their animagus forms."

"You know about that?" Remus asked calmly. "What did they do? Put a bulletin up in The Three Broomsticks?"

"Changed forms before disappearing into the trees," Lily explained with a roll of her eyes.

"Typical." Remus shook his head in despair. "I'll speak to them when they get back and tell them to be more careful."

"Potter wanted you and Peter to go after them," Lily told him, trying to sound as apologetic as possible.

"What for?" Remus asked.

"Because they're going after the other Sirius."

"But the forest is huge, I won't be able to track them in it."

"Peter could."

"It'd take hours, he might be a rodent, but he's not Speedy Gonzales."

"Speedy who?" the twins asked whilst Lily and Oliver chuckled.

"You have muggle relations?" Remus asked Oliver in surprise.

"No." He shook his head with a smile. "But my dad and the twins' father have a fascination with muggle things in common. The difference is my dad doesn't take them apart, so we have a working telly."

"Can we get back to the point here?" Lily asked. "They need your help in the forest."

"Lily," began Remus, his voice as patient as she'd ever heard it. "Sirius Black escaped from prison and has been on the run for months. Every Auror in the country is looking for him, what makes you think he can't give two teenage boys the slip just as easily."

"Because one of those boys is an equally devious Sirius Black."

"Okay, let's go find Peter and we'll see if we can track them."

The Weasley twins were already ahead of him and assured the others that Peter was nowhere on the map.

"Map?" Oliver asked, turning to the twins too late to see the device in question.

"The secret of our success," Fred commented, but refused to be drawn further.

"Map?" Lily questioned, her foot tapping impatiently.

"I'll tell you later," Remus muttered. "Let's just go find Peter."

-o-xXx-o-

"I think it's broken," Sirius commented as he looked at James's leg. "It looks really strange though."

"Thanks for that, mate," James muttered. "Can you fix it so I can get back to the school without being carried?"

"I bloody well hope so," Sirius replied. "'Cos I'm not carrying you back."

"Some best friend you are."

"Why don't you conjure him a stretcher and levitate it?" the other Sirius asked quietly. They were the first words he had spoken since they'd found James.

"You know the incantation?" Sirius asked.

"It's the least I can do," the other Sirius replied grimly.

"You're coming with us," Sirius told him. "You're going straight back to Azkaban, just as soon as Prongs is fixed up."

"I'm not going back there, not until I do what I came here to do, and not even then if I can help it."

"And what did you come here to do?" Sirius snarled, dreading the answer.

"To commit the murder I was imprisoned for," the older man replied, as though this answer was obvious.

-o-xXx-o-

"Peter?" Remus asked quietly as he approached his friend.

He didn't know what had happened to him but something had clearly upset the other boy. They'd found him curled up in the corner of their personal library in a state of utter distress. Remus had quickly persuaded the others to leave him alone with his friend so that he could try to get to the bottom of things.

"It's not true," Peter whispered, his face still buried in his knees.

"You've been reading about the history of this world," Remus commented, knowing that he had hit the nail on the head, even without seeing the titles of the books still scattered on the desk.

"It can't be true," Peter whimpered, shaking his head as he finally looked up.

"Sirius would never hurt you," Remus assured him as he settled down on the floor beside him, pulling the other boy into a one armed hug. "He feels dreadful that his other self did such terrible things. We hoped you and Prongs wouldn't find out."

"You knew what the books said?" Peter asked quietly.

"I looked some stuff up," Remus admitted. "We didn't mean to keep secrets from you…or Prongs."

Peter nodded thoughtfully, and he looked like he was thinking about whether to say something or not. "They're wrong," he finally blurted.

"What do you mean?"

"The books are wrong," Peter repeated. "Sirius didn't kill me. I'm still alive."

"What?"

"I saw myself on the map and went to Gryffindor Tower to try and track the other me down. He's there, in his rat form."

"But the books say-"

"The books are wrong!" Peter yelled. "I'm alive, and that means Sirius didn't kill me."

Remus nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, we'll get to the bottom of this. Don't worry about it, don't upset yourself."

"I thought you were supposed to be smart?" Peter snapped. "You don't get it, do you?"

"What do you mean? There's a mistake happened somewhere and we'll sort it out."

"A mistake is when you accidentally hand in your Herbology assignment to Professor McGonagall instead of Professor Spout. I don't think the Sirius Blacks of this world or ours would see this as a mistake. Whatever happened cost Sirius twelve years of his life."

Remus didn't know what to say. Sirius was known for being impulsive and reckless, it was one of the things he loved about him. But even Remus didn't know what sort of an effect twelve years in Azkaban Prison would have had on him.

"He's going to want them back," Peter whispered. "He's going to kill me."

"No, he won't," Remus assured him. "We won't let him hurt you. Marauders stick together, remember?"

"They didn't in this world," Peter pointed out miserably. "If they did, then the Peter in this world wouldn't have let Sirius go to prison for killing him, not when he was really alive."

"Well, we're not from this world," Remus replied easily.

The two boys sat quietly for a few more minutes before Peter finally spoke again. "Remus?"

"Hmm?"

"If Sirius didn't kill me, that means he isn't evil in this world."

"True."

"Even though I'm alive, those muggles died."

"If the books are right about that."

"And me and Sirius were the only ones who were there."

"Ah."

"What if I'm the evil one?"

Remus sighed and hugged the other boy closer. "Then I'll tell you what I keep telling Sirius…these others, they aren't us."

"Does Sirius believe you?"

"Of course," Remus lied after only the briefest hesitation. Thankfully, Peter didn't notice the telling pause.

-o-xXx-o-

"It's very strange," Madam Pomfrey commented as she examined James's leg. "I've only ever seen a broken bone like this once before."

"When was that?" James asked, more to take his mind off of the pain than anything else.

"Hmm? Oh, it was about ten years ago when Professor McGonagall broke her wrist. She was in her cat when she broke it and had to change back before it was mended. The break in the bone was odd, just like this one."

"Well, I've not been running around as a cat," promised James, crossing his fingers under the sheet of the hospital bed as he spoke. It wasn't like it was a complete lie.

"Can you fix it?" Sirius asked.

"Of course." Madam Pomfrey tried not to look offended. "It'll take a little longer than a regular broken bone though. Part of the bone will have to be grown back, which means Mr Potter will be staying in overnight."

James groaned in annoyance.

"It's no good whining," Madam Pomfrey scolded. "And Mr Black, I thought I asked you to take that dog out of here. It looks positively filthy."

"He's not very well trained," Sirius muttered, glaring at his older self, hiding out in his animagus form.

"You should go see where Remus and Peter got to anyway," James commented.

Sirius nodded, shoving his other self ahead of him with the toe of his shoe. "See you later, mate."

He gave James a last wave from the doorway and headed towards the Room of Requirement. His other self remained close at his heels, growling excitedly with every step they took.

-o-xXx-o-

"Where's Oliver and the twins?" asked Remus, as he looked around the private common room.

"Gone to lunch," Lily replied. "Oliver won't tell anyone about us."

"Oh, I trust him more than I trust the twins," Remus laughed. "And they already knew most of it."

"I didn't tell them about you," Lily whispered, even though the only other person in the room was Peter. "They don't know about your…"

"Furry little problem?" Remus finished for her. "Thanks. Now, how about we go and find Prongs and Padfoot?"

"No need," Sirius said from the doorway. "Prongs is in the –"

Sirius's words were cut off by Peter's scream as the large black dog launched himself towards the boy.

Remus's quick thinking and reflexes pushed Peter out of the way and Lily reached for her wand, stopping the animal in mid air with a quick incantation.

"Your other self?" Lily asked politely, gesturing to the frozen dog with her wand.

"Yeah," Sirius muttered, scowling at the animal.

"And you thought it would be a good idea to bring him back here because…?"

"It was that or let him get away. Prongs got hurt and-"

"What?" Lily whispered, her face going pale. "He's hurt? What happened? Is it serious?"

"A broken leg, but he broke it whilst he was a stag, so when he turned back it went a bit funny and part of the bone needs to be grown back. Madam Pomfrey's keeping him in overnight."

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah, he's…" Sirius halted and bit his lip slightly. Remus could tell that he was going into his less than completely truthful mode, but Lily was far too concerned to notice. "He's putting on a brave face, but I can tell he's in a lot of pain."

"He is?"

"Loads. Madam Pomfrey was really concerned. Said she'd only ever seen an injury like it once before."

"Maybe I should go and see him," Lily murmured to herself.

"I'm sure he'd appreciate the gesture," said Sirius with a nod of agreement, but Lily was already out of the door.

"I take it Prongs is perfectly all right?" Remus asked with a smirk.

"Oh, yeah, lapping up the attention like always. Turn around for the books seeing Evans so worried about him though."

"I think maybe she's warming up to him."

"Hmm. So what do we do with my other self?"

"I think we should wait until the spell wears off and then find out what really happened back in the past."

"He said he wanted to commit the murder her was imprisoned for," Sirius explained, casting a meaningful glance towards Peter as he did so.

Peter squeaked slightly edged further away from the frozen dog.

"The older Wormtail is here at Hogwarts," Remus said. "Peter found him on the map. I think there's more to this than what we, or most other people in this world, know. How long do you think Lily's spell will last?"

"It lasted twenty four hours when she cast it on Prongs back in fifth year."

Peter relaxed a little at this.

"Guess we'll sort it all out tomorrow then."


	10. Unravelling the Past

Unravelling the Past

"Sirius, wake up," Remus whispered, nudging his fitfully sleeping boyfriend.

"Wha-" Sirius mumbled as he opened his eyes.

"You were having another nightmare," Remus explained, brushing the dark hair out of the haunted grey eyes.

"I think I'll go sit by the fire for a bit," Sirius said. He pushed back the blankets and sat up with a groan.

"You want some company?" Remus asked, sitting up too.

"No." Sirius shook his head and walked slowly towards the door. "You get some sleep, I'll be back soon."

Remus nodded and curled back up under the covers, but without the warm and now familiar presence of Sirius beside him he found it hard to get back to sleep. After half an hour he gave up trying and padded towards the common room.

Sirius was curled up on the sofa, still wide-awake. He moved his legs so that Remus could sit beside him, but Remus shook his head.

"Come with me," he said, reaching out his hand.

"Where are we going?" Sirius asked as he let Remus pull him to his feet.

"You need to relax if you're ever going to get a decent night's sleep," Remus told him. He picked up the map and James's cloak from where they'd been carelessly tossed on one of the chairs.

"What about _him_?" Sirius asked, nodding towards the extra room that they'd asked the room for…one with plenty of security to keep the older animagus confined until Prongs returned from the hospital wing.

"He's not going anywhere," Remus replied. "Now are you coming with me, or do I have to drag you?"

Sirius smiled briefly at the idea but followed Remus without an argument.

It wasn't long before they found themselves in front of the door to the prefects' bathroom.

"Waterfall," Remus said, unlocking the door for them to access the room.

"You're letting me into the hallowed ground of the prefects' bathroom?" Sirius teased.

"You've been in here before," Remus pointed out. "At least half a dozen times that I can think of. And I did promise you we'd make use of it at Easter."

"We've missed Easter," Sirius realised as he mentally calculated the time that had passed since they'd left their own world.

"I'm just hoping that we get back before the exams roll round, or we'll have missed those as well."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Sirius grinned. "You think they'd give us all top marks if that happens?"

"I doubt it." Remus shook his head in amusement and leaned over the spacious bathtub and turned on the taps.

"Can we check out the whirlpool function?" Sirius asked mischievously.

Remus smiled back and nodded. He knew it had been a good idea to bring Sirius here, and he was relieved to see him looking more and more like his old self with every passing minute.

In no time at all they were both relaxing in the bathtub. Sirius gave a sigh of contentment and Remus closed his eyes and smiled.

"This feels great," Sirius murmured quietly as the gentle waves lapped at them.

"I know what'll feel even better," Remus suggested as he moved to sit alongside Sirius.

"I can think of several things," Sirius replied with a wicked smile. "So how long can you hold your breath for?"

"I was thinking more like giving you a massage," Remus whispered, planting a soft kiss on Sirius's shoulder. Sirius took the hint and turned round so that Remus had access to his back.

"You're so tense," Remus commented as he gently rubbed Sirius's shoulders, increasing the pressure slightly at each of Sirius's groans of pleasure.

"You're so good to me," Sirius replied, his head falling back slightly. "I don't deserve you. You do know that, right? You deserve so much better than me."

"I make my own mind up as to what I deserve," Remus chided affectionately.

"I've been a pretty crap boyfriend though."

Remus slapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Nonsense."

"But I have," Sirius argued. "We've been here for two months and I've not found a way to get the Wolfsbane potion back to our world yet. I've been neglecting you so much."

Remus snorted with laughter at that. If Sirius had been neglecting him that much, it wouldn't have taken him so long to find the time to speak with Professor Lupin alone.

"We could get sent home tomorrow and I'd have failed you," Sirius continued dejectedly.

"As it happens, I have an idea about the potion," Remus interrupted.

"You do?" Sirius turned round to look at Remus questioningly.

Remus nodded. "We don't really need the potion, just the recipe."

"And you have it?"

"It's in the library in the old archives of the Daily Prophet. I got Lily to look for me. The recipe was written up in the paper so that any werewolves reading it could try to make it if they wanted to. A lot of the ingredients are rare and expensive though. But the paper thought that by getting the recipe out there it would reduce the number of werewolves running about on the night of the full moon."

"I don't suppose they'd let you bring the newspaper back with you?"

"I don't want to risk Dumbledore saying no. I think we should sneak the recipe back."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Sirius asked curiously. "You don't even think he'll let us take back a few harmless chocolate frog cards."

"He probably won't. This is why I plan on being slightly more subtle than sneaking it into the pocket of my robes. It'll just need a trip to the library with the map one night."

"I still can't believe we're banned completely from the library," Sirius complained.

"You can't?" Remus asked sarcastically.

"Okay, I can believe me and Prongs being banned, but not you."

"Well, apparently the prank that got us banned was one I was involved in."

"Love to know what it was."

Remus remained quiet, knowing exactly what it was since he'd decided to ask Professor McGonagall about it. She had been surprisingly open about the prank, but also very firm in the insistence that he didn't use the knowledge to do the same thing again.

"You know what it is, don't you?" Sirius had correctly interpreted his silence and Remus sighed, knowing he'd get no peace until he told him what he knew.

"Apparently, _someone_ had the idea to put a spell on all the books in the library," Remus explained.

"What spell?"

"The Little Wizard Reader spell."

"The what?"

"It's the spell that gets put on children's books so that they read the words out loud for children. It helps them to learn to read. Apparently we put it on all the books in the library and every time anyone opened a book the contents were spoken, shouted in fact, aloud. Madam Pince wasn't very happy about it and it took nearly a month for the spell to be removed from them all. Supposedly you can cast the spell in mass, just like the publishers do, to put it on the books, but it has to be removed individually."

"Wish I'd been there to see that," Sirius sighed. "Brilliant idea! It's got to be one of yours."

"Yeah, it does have rather have me written all over it," Remus admitted. "Anyway, I'll borrow the map and sneak in one night and get the spell to take home."

"What's wrong with now?" Sirius asked.

"You want to go to the library?" Remus asked with a smirk.

"Why not?"

Remus couldn't keep back his laughter at the astonished and mildly offended face of Sirius Black as he twisted out of his grasp and clambered out of the bath.

"What's so funny?" Sirius muttered as he grabbed a towel from the rack and started to dry himself.

"You are," Remus told him between spluttering gasps of laughter.

"And are you going to explain, or just sit there, laughing?"

Remus shook his head again as he tried to draw in a deep breath and stop the mild hysterics. "You want to go to the library," he finally gasped.

"So?"

"Do you remember our journey here back at the start of fifth year?" Remus asked.

"Sure." Sirius nodded. "We thought you'd missed the train, but instead you'd abandoned your mates for the prefects' carriage."

"I'd hardly call it abandoned. But when I came back to join you and the others, the first advantage of me being a prefect you could think of, was getting into the prefects' bathroom. You'd suggested it before we'd even passed through Buckinghamshire."

"Well, it's a good bathroom."

"You've snuck in here at least half a dozen times, and that's just the times I know about. But this is the first time you've been in here since we…" Remus's voice trailed off and he waved his hand in a vague gesture.

"Had sex?" Sirius finished for him. "Considering how many times we've done it, I would think you'd be able to say it out loud now."

"Fine, _had sex_," Remus said. "So, here we are, in the prefects' bathroom, in the middle of the night, with virtually no chance of anyone disturbing us. You've just been given a massage by your boyfriend, who is not only very naked right now, but highly aroused. And you decide that instead of taking advantage of this opportunity, you'd rather go to the library…a place you normally have to be dragged to under protest."

"I guess when you put it like that…" Sirius grinned and tossed the damp towel aside and climbed back into the bath. "Now, I seem to recall you once telling Prongs and Wormtail that I could hold my breath underwater for nearly ten minutes."

"Been practising, have you?" Remus asked.

Sirius grinned and drew in a deep breath before plunging under the water. Remus had no idea if Sirius would last ten minutes, but he knew that he wouldn't.

-o-xXx-o-

Lily sat on the grass by the lake, watching the sun come up. It was a very romantic spot, and popular with the young couples of Hogwarts. It was just a pity that she didn't feel in a particularly romantic mood right now.

"I can't persuade you to stay here?" Oliver asked quietly. "If Dumbledore finds a way to send you home, you wouldn't consider it?"

"We wouldn't be allowed to stay here," Lily replied sadly. "I shouldn't even have let things go this far."

"This far?" Oliver asked with a smile. "I've not even kissed you…yet."

Lily smiled at the hopeful sound of the word yet and turned to the boy sitting beside her. "I shouldn't have got involved at all," she explained.

"Is it because of Harry?" Oliver asked. "Knowing that you're supposed to be with his father?"

"No." Lily shook her head. "This is a different world and just because the Lily of this world married James, it doesn't mean I will. Just because he's injured and I show concern for his wellbeing…it doesn't mean anything."

"You like him." It wasn't a question but Lily felt the urge to answer it anyway.

"I hate him," she hissed. "He's an arrogant bully! He's pigheaded, mean and spends his life making everyone else miserable by hexing them and jinxing them and…"

"He does?" Oliver interrupted. "I've never seen him do that. There are bullies here at Hogwarts, just like any other school, but I've never seen James dishing it out."

"He's been doing it since first year," Lily argued, silently cursing the aggressiveness of her tone.

"I'm just saying," Oliver replied, raising his hands for peace. "Maybe you're still seeing him as a bully, even though he's grown out of it?"

Lily smiled and shook her head. "You realise you're trying to persuade me to choose someone else over you?" she asked.

"You can't stay here, and I can't go with you," Oliver pointed out sadly. "It's not like you could ever really choose me."

Lily smiled sadly and leaned forward. Oliver's lips met her own half way and she leaned into the kiss. It was sweet and tender, and probably a big mistake.

"We should head back to the castle," Oliver whispered.

"Hmm," Lily nodded. Neither of them made an effort to move from the lakeside.

"We shouldn't get any more involved than we already are," Oliver continued.

"No," Lily agreed, even as their lips met for a second time. The second kiss was bolder and Lily moaned slightly when she felt a tongue teasing her lower lip. This was a mistake. She knew it was a mistake. A big mistake. Probably one of the biggest mistakes of her life. But she couldn't have stopped herself, no more than she could stop herself from breathing.

"I'll miss you," Oliver said after they'd pulled apart. He reached up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "A part of me hopes that Dumbledore won't be able to find a way to send you home again."

"He's the greatest wizard alive," Lily pointed out.

"I know. I just wish that he wasn't."

Lily watched as Oliver stood up and walked a few paces away from her. She wanted to stand up and wrap her arms around his waist, but her brain was finally starting to gain control of her impulses again, and she remained seated on the grass.

After a few minutes Oliver turned back to her and reached out his hand. "Come on, Lily, I'll walk you back to the castle."

Lily nodded and put her hand into his, letting him pull her to her feet. She knew she should have pulled her hand from his grasp, but it felt nice to walk hand in hand with the other boy and instead of releasing his hand, she squeezed it slightly, glowing in the returned pressure.

-o-xXx-o-

"So we're just waiting for the twins?" Remus asked.

"I say we start without them," Sirius said impatiently, glaring towards the door, behind which his older self was imprisoned.

"I think we need as many wands on him as possible," Peter muttered with a glare of his own.

"Yeah," James agreed. "I'm still feeling a little weak."

"You were perfectly fine when you ran in here to tell everyone you'd seen me and Oliver by the lake earlier this morning," Lily pointed out.

"I was in shock," James replied. "I'm about to leave the hospital wing and I look out the window to see my girl snogging the face off of some other bloke." He glared at the bloke in question, who simply looked back calmly. "It set me back so much Madam Pomfrey had to keep me in for another hour."

"For the millionth time, I'm not your bloody girl," Lily snarled.

"Only because you're too stubborn to see that we're meant to be."

Lily groaned and only the calming presence of Oliver sitting beside her stopped her from leaping from her seat and punching James in the nose.

"I say we check the map and see if they're on their way," Sirius said, casting a meaningful glance at Remus.

"That's another thing," Lily said. "That map has got to be handed in to a teacher as soon as we get home."

"No," Remus replied immediately.

"I thought you'd be on my side," Lily commented.

"Not on this." Remus wouldn't be drawn further and pulled out the map. He activated it – Lily snorted at the password – and smiled as he announced that the twins were on their way.

"Looks like they're bringing company," Sirius said, pointing to the parchment.

"Looks like they're being followed," Remus replied, pointing to something else.

"What is it?" James asked, jumping up from the sofa to see the map for himself. "Harry Potter?" he gasped, pointing to one of the dots.

"You haven't told him yet?" Peter asked.

"We thought…" Remus began.

"It's like this Prongs…" Sirius faltered.

"Bloody useless," Lily muttered. "Potter? Harry's your son, a third year, and the seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

"Wow," James breathed. "Seeker on the team in third year."

"Been on the team since his first," Oliver added with a grin. "Never failed to catch the snitch either."

"Really?" James grinned at the Quidditch Captain, being civil to him for the first time since he'd noticed Lily's partiality to his company.

"There's a few other things you should know as well," Remus added. He ignored Lily's groan of annoyance and quickly filled James in on the story as they believed they knew it.

"We're not too late, are we?" Fred asked as the room filled up with the new arrivals a few minutes later.

"Did you bring him?" Remus asked.

"Right here," George pointed to one of the younger boys who was carrying a small cage containing a familiar looking rat. "This is Ron, he insisted on coming with us."

"That's because I'm not having you perform some stupid spell on poor Scabbers again," the younger boy replied. "Harry and Hermione are here to make sure I wasn't outnumbered if they," he nodded to the twins, "try anything funny."

"And I'm here," Professor Lupin announced from the doorway, "because I apparently have either very good, or very bad, timing. I did want a quiet word with Remus here, but I think perhaps that might wait until after someone explains the rather loud barking coming from the room over there."

Several students cast guilty glances at each other, none wanting to be the one to begin the explanations. Finally Lily broke the silence. "Sirius Black's in there."

"He is?" Professor Lupin cast a suspicious glance towards the door.

"He's kind of annoyed," Remus pointed out, rather unnecessarily. "He tried to attack Peter."

"He's barking mad," Sirius added. "Lost the plot completely if you ask me."

"Sirius Black's in there?" Harry asked quietly, pointing towards the door.

"Is there any reason why no one thought to call me or one of the other teachers?" Professor Lupin asked impatiently. "I thought you'd have trusted _me_ at the very least."

"We do," Sirius assured him. "But there's something funny going on here. He said he wanted to commit the murder he was imprisoned for. Then he tried to attack Peter, he couldn't even tell that he's too young to be the one he's after."

"Azkaban must have unhinged him," Remus said.

"It certainly sounds like it," Professor Lupin agreed. "These sound like the ravings of a madman."

"Not all of it," Peter interrupted. "Peter, the older one is still alive."

"He can't be."

"He's over there," Peter pointed towards Ron who was still holding the cage. Ron, Harry and Hermione still looked torn between confusion and fear.

Professor Lupin turned towards Ron and peered into the cage. "Well I'll be damned," he whispered.

"Let me out of here!" screamed Sirius Black, his hammering on the door increasing at the sound of more and more voices on the other side.

"Peter, take the rat and go into the bedroom."

"I'm not giving Scabbers to him," Ron argued.

"Fine, you go with him," Professor Lupin said. "Take Harry and Hermione too."

Harry looked like he wanted to argue but followed after the others without a word.

"Sirius?" Professor Lupin called through the door. "Can you hear me?"

"I'm not deaf!" Sirius yelled back.

"Thought maybe you were, what with the way you're screaming," Professor Lupin replied calmly. "Now, will you agree to talk reasonably with us if we let you out?"

There was silence from the other room.

"Sirius?" Professor Lupin called quietly. "Padfoot?"

"Moony?" Sirius asked from the other side of the door. "Is that you? Or have I really gone mad?"

"It's me."

Remus reached for Sirius's hand as they watched Professor Lupin speaking to Sirius through the safety of the door.

"Do you hear what I hear?" Sirius whispered into his ear.

Remus smiled back at him and kissed him lightly on the lips. "You know they're not," he whispered back.

"Bet they want to be," Sirius murmured into his ear, nipping on the lobe slightly.

"Padfoot, behave," Remus scolded. He didn't dare take his eyes from the door that was now being opened by Professor Lupin.

"Moony?" the older Sirius asked. He sounded like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Padfoot." Professor Lupin nodded and a moment later he was enveloped in a tight hug.

"I told you," Sirius whispered in Remus's ear again.

"Maybe you're right," Remus agreed, more for peace and quiet than because he actually thought Sirius had a point.

Professor Lupin guided the other Sirius to the chair nearest the fire. "What happened Sirius?"

"He-" Lily began, but was cut off immediately by Professor Lupin.

"I know that you all think you've figured out what happened, but I need to hear it from Sirius, if you don't mind."

Lily nodded in understanding.

"Sirius?" Professor Lupin asked.

"It's all my fault," the older Sirius whispered. "I told them to do it."

From the corner of his eye, Remus caught sight of the bedroom door opening again. Neither Professor Lupin, nor the older Sirius saw the movement, but everyone else in the room could see Peter and the others creeping back into the room.

"Do what?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Switch. It was supposed to be a bluff, but…"

"Peter was the Secret Keeper, wasn't he?" Professor Lupin asked, receiving a sharp nod as confirmation that his guess was correct.

Remus looked at their own Peter who was growing steadily paler at the confirmation that he was the one who'd betrayed his friends. He reached out his free hand and tugged Peter down beside him. "It's not you," he whispered. "It's not you, and they aren't us. Just remember that, and we'll be fine."

Peter nodded mutely, but Remus could still see the fear in his eyes as he looked at the man who'd lost twelve years of his life because of what his own double had done.

On the other side of Peter, James walked over to perch on the arm. He patted Peter on the shoulder, leaving his hand there comfortingly.

Slowly and brokenly, the older Sirius explained what had happened on the night James and Lily Potter had died. The only one listening even more intently than themselves was Harry Potter…to whom this was all apparently news that he'd never heard before.

"It's going to be all right," Professor Lupin told the older Sirius firmly once he'd reached the end of his tale.

"It will be once I kill him."

Remus felt Peter stiffening beside him as the older Sirius darted a look in their direction.

"That's not Peter," Professor Lupin stated simply. "Look at him, he's just a boy."

"They look so much like us."

"They do." Professor Lupin smiled across at them. "They are us, as we used to be, or at least almost."

"I'm going crazy?" the older Sirius asked.

"Going?" Professor Lupin quipped with a smirk. "Padfoot, you went crazy years ago."

The older Sirius smiled back at him and across the room Remus caught a glimpse of the man he'd been before Azkaban had taken its toll on him.


	11. No Fate But What You Make

No Fate But What You Make

"What do you think Dumbledore will do about him?" Sirius asked, nodding to where his older self was walking by the lake with his godson.

"I don't know," Remus replied. "I don't know why he won't agree to Harry moving in with Sirius instead of staying with his muggle relatives."

"I guess there's more to this than Dumbledore's letting on."

"I'm sure you're right. I wonder how he's getting on with finding a way to get us home…"

"Don't know, but I hope he finds one soon. Peter's more than ready to go home, seeing his other self sent off to Azkaban has knocked him for six. And James is sick of seeing Lily mooning over Oliver."

"Lily isn't mooning," Remus replied. "She's just decided to stop things before it gets too difficult to leave."

"Not to mention, she doesn't want to traumatise Harry by snogging a bloke that isn't his father where he might see."

"You know something Padfoot?" Remus said as he pulled Sirius down to the ground near the willow tree. "I think we need to do something to cheer everyone up."

"A prank?" Sirius's eyes lit up.

"Of course," Remus replied. "What else? I vote we call an emergency meeting of the Marauder/Weasley Alliance this evening."

"And what do you suggest we do in the meantime?" Sirius whispered, planting kisses along Remus's jaw.

"Um, you know what you said about traumatising Harry?"

"Hmm."

"He and the older you are looking at us, and they're looking rather…erm…traumatised."

Sirius pulled back and turned to see where Remus was looking. "What's the matter?" he called. "Never seen a couple of blokes snogging before?"

"Sirius!" Remus exclaimed, even as he laughed out loud at the astonished faces of Harry and the other Sirius.

"Maybe you should track down a certain bookish professor and try it yourself?" Sirius suggested with a wink.

Remus laughed as the older Sirius flushed familiarly. Harry meanwhile, didn't seem to know where to look. "Come on Padfoot," he said, coaxing Sirius to his feet and back to the castle. "Let's leave Harry and his godfather to get to know each other again."

-o-xXx-o-

Getting into the kitchens was the easy part. Getting the potion past the house elves took a little more effort. But with the combined efforts of the Marauders and the Weasley twins they succeeded.

"We're really going to do this?" James asked.

Remus grinned back at him as he poured the potion into the pumpkin juice that was waiting to be drunk by the entire school.

"You still don't know what it does exactly?" George asked.

"The book was a bit vague," Remus replied as he quickly stirred the potion into the juice.

"Do we need to avoid drinking it ourselves?" Peter asked.

"Nope, it'll work on those who know about it too."

"We could test it now?" suggested Sirius, reaching towards the juice, only to have his hand slapped away by Remus.

"Be patient, Padfoot," Remus scolded. "There's no need to stick your dirty fingers in the juice."

"My hands are perfectly clean."

"You can still wait until we're in the Great Hall with the rest of the school."

-o-xXx-o-

"Looks like he's staying here for a while," Sirius commented, nodding towards the staff table where Sirius Black was talking quietly with Professor Lupin.

"Professor Lupin's looking ill again," George noted with a frown. "He looks even worse than Moony here."

"Thanks a lot," Remus snorted.

"You know, you never did tell us what your animagus form is?" Fred asked. "What with everything else, I forgot to ask again."

"I don't have one," Remus replied shortly.

"So where's the nickname come from?"

"Where do you think it comes from?" Sirius smirked. "Moony here is the most daring and outrageous of all of us. Mooned Yorkshire from the Hogwarts Express back in fourth year."

"I did not," exclaimed Remus, casually kicking Sirius under the table just as the food arrived.

"He did," Sirius whispered with a wink.

"I'd rather they know the truth than have them believe that," Remus hissed.

"Okay, okay," Sirius turned back to the twins. "It was actually Derbyshire."

Remus tried to kick Sirius again, only to find his foot captured between his boyfriend's own. He was about to say something when the first astonished gasps of the students around them drew his attention away from their discussion.

"Looks like it's working," James said with a grin as he took a long swallow from his own glass of juice.

"What do you see Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"Wow!" James breathed. "It's beautiful. Lily's you're all glowing."

Lily, who had yet to take a drink of her juice, looked across the table at him in confusion.

"I've got to see this," Sirius said as he gulped down some of his own juice. "Moony, you're all silvery."

"So are you," Remus replied, placing his own glass back on the table.

"We're not identical!" Fred exclaimed as he looked at George. "You're all blue-green, but I'm more purple."

"That's because the potion shows you a person's aura, it isn't based on personality or familial ties," Remus explained. "If it was, me and Sirius would be totally different colours."

"Instead of being a perfect match," Sirius commented, picking up Remus's hand and watching the two glowing auras mingling together. All around the room students were seeing the auras of everyone else, and the room seemed awash with every colour of the rainbow and more besides.

"Me and Lily are both red," James crowed.

"We are _not_," Lily snapped.

"How would you know?" James asked. "You've not taken a drink yet."

"I don't need to take a drink to know you're lying."

"You just too scared to accept I might be right about this," James accused. "If you're so sure I'm lying…take a drink and prove it."

"Fine! I will!"

"So, what are you waiting for?" James teased.

Lily scowled as she reached for her glass and took a swallow of juice. She closed her eyes as she drank, only opening them after she'd taken a calming breath. She looked at her hand, resting on the table, then across at James. "Shit!"

"Told you so," James gloated. "A perfect match."

"Not exactly perfect," Lily pointed out. "You're slightly darker than I am."

"I'm closer to your colour than Oliver is," James retorted, casting a glance down the table to where Oliver, with a dark orange aura was looking in their direction.

"Looks like the teachers are seeing what we are too," Sirius commented with a nod to the staff table. "And the other Moony and Padfoot are silver, just like us."

Remus looked at the table with a smile. Professor Lupin and Sirius Black were currently holding their hands up next to each other, checking to see how close a match their colours were.

At the Gryffindor table, Sirius put his arm around Remus and smirked at the staff table. The older Sirius eventually caught his eye and Sirius winked at him. The older Sirius gave a barking laugh and turned to the Professor beside him. They couldn't hear what he said, but Professor Lupin flushed slightly and shook his head in what appeared to be amusement. Sirius then whispered something in his ear, which caused Professor Lupin's jaw to drop rather comically. Once he'd recovered his composure he said something to Sirius who shrugged slightly and smiled sheepishly. Their younger selves watched as Professor Lupin stood up and nodded towards the nearest exit. The older Sirius didn't argue as he followed after the Professor without another look at the rest of the room.

"Bet I know where they're going?" Sirius whispered to Remus. "Or at least what they're going to do."

"Just because you've got a one track mind," Remus teased.

The rest of the meal was spent watching the rest of the students as they figured out what it was they were seeing.

"Your sister and Harry seem quite a close match," James said to the twins with a nod down the table.

"I'm not surprised," George replied. "She's had a crush on him for ages. I'm more interested in Ron and Hermione. He does a lot of complaining about her and they fight like cats and dogs."

"So did that pair," said James, pointing a fork at Remus and Sirius. "As for me and my Lily, we've not stopped fighting since first year."

"How long does the potion last for?" Fred asked.

"About twelve hours," Remus replied.

"Right." He nodded and looked down the table. "Hey! Colin! Over here kid!"

A young boy, who Remus guessed was a second year, looked up at the call and made his way cautiously down the table. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Can I borrow your camera for a bit?" Fred asked.

"You want to know if the glowing shows up on photos?" Colin asked.

"Yeah, that's right," Fred nodded. "So can I?"

"Okay," Colin said with a smile as he handed over the camera. "But don't break it."

"I'll guard it with my life," Fred promised. Then he climbed up onto the table and began snapping pictures of the occupants of the Great Hall.

"Why do you need so many?" Sirius asked curiously. "Just one would be enough to check if they appear."

"No time to develop them until after the potion's worn off," Fred explained. "By then it'll be too late. But if they show up we can make a fortune from the Weasley Dating Agency."

Remus laughed and shook his head. It seemed that the older students were rapidly searching the hall for their best matches already, but for those that were colour blind or slow on the uptake, the Weasley twins would be prepared.

-o-xXx-o-

"Can you feel the love?" Sirius whispered as they made their way back to the Room of Requirement.

"I can certainly hear it," Remus chuckled. "In every empty classroom and broom cupboard in the school."

"I feel our work is done here," Sirius smiled.

"It certainly is," Professor Dumbledore announced with a smile.

"Professor?" Remus asked questioningly.

"Oh, don't worry, you're not in trouble. I've just come to let you know I've found a way to open the portal to your own world."

"You have?"

"Yes. I think perhaps it might be wise for you to say your goodbyes this evening, then tomorrow I'll see you safely home."

Remus and Sirius nodded as they let themselves into the room. At the varied expressions in the room they knew that Dumbledore had already told the others the news.

"You okay?" Remus asked Lily.

The redheaded girl nodded mutely before running from the room.

Tomorrow was going to be difficult, for all of them, but most especially for the only female member of the party.

-o-xXx-o-

"You have everything you brought with you?" Dumbledore asked.

The five Gryffindors nodded.

"May I suggest we check they haven't got anything they shouldn't have?" Severus Snape asked.

Sirius scowled at the teacher and wished that their departure hadn't drawn such a crowd. It had been decided to open the portal in a spot near the lake. Dumbledore had mentioned something about it being a powerful spot, but as long as it worked Sirius didn't really care where they travelled from. He just wished that certain people, namely Professor Snape, would bugger off back into the castle.

He silently reiterated that wish after various chocolate frog cards and pranking items were apprehended by the professors.

"And what's this?" Professor McGonagall asked. She pulled out the blank parchment that was the Map.

"That came with us," James said, reaching out his hand to take it back.

"Are you sure?" Professor McGonagall asked suspiciously. "Miss Evans, do you recognise this?"

Remus looked at Lily pleadingly. They couldn't lose the parchment, and he silently begged her not to reveal what it was.

"It came with them," Lily admitted, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Professor McGonagall looked equally reluctant as she passed back the parchment, but nothing further was said. Remus breathed a sigh of relief, which he hoped went unnoticed.

Professor Dumbledore then opened the portal, drawing gasps of awe from the crowd.

"Don't do anything we wouldn't do!" Fred yelled after them, as they walked towards the portal, where a rather irate looking Dumbledore was waiting on the other side.

Professor McGonagall snorted and told them to at least try to behave, reminding Remus one last time that he would come to regret it if he were banned from the library.

Lily looked towards the edge of the crowd where Oliver and Harry were standing close together. She gave them a final wave before stepping through the portal. James on the other hand ran to Harry and gave the rather startled boy a hug before following after her. Peter disappeared right after them, leaving only Remus and Sirius to cross through the portal.

"You'd think they would come and see us off," Sirius muttered, looking for their older selves.

"They probably lost track of the time," Remus pointed out. "It happens to me all the time…at least when I'm with you."

"But still…"

"Here they are," Remus said with a nod towards their older selves who were hurrying towards them from the castle.

"You came!" Sirius exclaimed joyful.

"Several times," his older self replied with a wink.

"For Merlin's sake," Remus and the Professor muttered, whilst the young Sirius laughed.

"I thought you said you'd kissed once before and didn't like it," Remus asked Professor Lupin, curiosity getting the better of him.

"That's true," Professor Lupin replied. "It was awkward, in front of most of our year, and highly embarrassing."

"Which is why our second one was in the privacy of an empty Transfiguration classroom," Sirius explained with a wink at the slightly stunned looking Professor McGonagall.

"Remus, can I have a quiet word?" Professor Lupin asked.

"Make it quick," Dumbledore advised, pointing to the portal. Remus nodded and stepped away from the crowd.

"Are you taking it with you?" the Professor asked in a voice that was barely more than a whisper.

Remus nodded. "Are you going to tell?"

"No," Professor Lupin shook his head. "I guess there's still a bit of the marauder in me, even after all these years. Just be careful, and take care of yourself and the others."

"They take care of me," Remus replied with a smile back at Sirius.

Professor Lupin smiled across at the older Sirius. "Don't be afraid of trying to change things," he advised. "Our fates don't have to be your own."

Remus nodded again. "We aren't going to let the same things happen in our world," he replied.

Professor Lupin looked like he was going to say something more, but a subtle cough from Professor Dumbledore reminded them that they were running out of time.

"Good luck!" Professor Lupin offered as they approached the portal.

"Don't need it," Sirius replied as he tugged Remus towards the doorway. "He's got me instead."

-o-xXx-o-

The Gryffindor common room looked just like it had when they'd left it. Sirius and James had just regaled the students with the tale of their great adventure for the third time when Lily stepped into the room.

"You carry on Padfoot," James said, heading towards Lily before the portrait hole had even closed. "Lily?" he asked as he approached her.

"What do you want, Potter?" she asked tiredly.

"James."

"What?"

"I want you to call me James, not Potter," James explained. "I'll call you Lily and you call me James."

Lily raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Look," James said as he guided her back out of the portrait hole. "I'm not asking you out or anything, not this time. I'm just asking that you give us a chance at being friends, starting with using each other's first names. And we'll take things from there, okay?"

"Okay." Lily nodded reluctantly. She still looked suspicious.

"I'm really not going to ask you out…yet," James repeated. "I don't want to be the rebound guy or anything like that."

"Why are you being so nice?" Lily asked.

"Because I like you," James replied, as though this was quite obvious. "I know I've been a jerk before, you've told me often enough, but I'm trying to make things up to you. I'm just asking you for the chance."

"All right," Lily sighed. "Friends?"

"Friends." James held out his hand for Lily to shake, and tried not to squeal like a girl when she took his right hand with her left and led him down the stairs.

-o-xXx-o-

"You okay, Peter?" Remus asked. The blond haired boy nodded silently.

"Not still moping about being evil?" Sirius asked with a grin.

Peter shook his head half-heartedly and shrugged.

"Look at it this way," Sirius advised. "On the last world, you were evil. On the one before that it was me. By my estimation that means it is Prongs or Moony who are evil on this world."

"I vote Prongs," Remus said with a smirk. "He's been acting odd for years."

Peter smiled reluctantly and nodded in agreement.

-o-xXx-o-

"I wish they'd let us bring back those chocolate frog cards," Sirius commented later that evening, after the marauders and Lily were the only ones left in the common room.

"We'd have made a fortune," James agreed.

"We could still make some money," Peter said from where he was stretched out on the floor.

"Don't see how," Sirius muttered.

Peter smirked up at him, waiting until he had everyone's attention before continuing. "Who's got the map?" he asked.

"I do," Remus replied, easing himself out of Sirius's embrace to pull the map from the pocket of his robes.

Peter reached out and took the map. He pulled his wand out and tapped the parchment. "Wormtail's winners," he stated simply.

The rest of the marauders and Lily leaned over to see the text that was slowly appearing on the parchment. Lines and lines of text in Peter's small but neat handwriting.

"That's the results of the Quidditch League!" Sirius gasped.

"For the next ten years," Peter grinned. "We should clean up."

"It'll certainly help us get the funds for the ingredients for the Wolfsbane potion," Sirius commented with a grin at Remus.

"That potion won't be invented for years," Lily pointed out.

Sirius grinned and pulled out his wand. "Great minds think alike, eh Wormtail?" He tapped the parchment as he said "Moony and Padfoot forever." Slowly the text of the Quidditch results disappeared, being replaced with Remus's own handwriting, detailing the ingredients and recipe for the Wolfsbane potion.

"You can't use that before it's invented!" Lily accused.

"You going to stop me?" Remus asked mildly.

"I…I…." Lily shrugged. "I guess not."

"Good," Remus smiled. "Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm very glad to be home."

"Hmm," Sirius murmured in agreement as he snuggled up close to Remus. "No more evil doubles for me."

"No more doubles for any of us," Lily said with a smirk. "One lot of marauders is more than enough for any world."

The End

* * *

A/N: Thank you to everyone for reading, and most especially to those who have taken the time to leave comments. I hope you have enjoyed this fourth and final instalment of my Trouble series.

If you have enjoyed the story, I hope you will consider checking out some of my others.

And don't forget that the Moony and Padfoot Parlour is a forum for anyone who likes to ship the puppies so feel free to stop in and say hello. The forum can be accessed through my profile page.


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